Sparks: Reiko Sudo

To call Reiko Sudo a mastermind of textiles would probably be an understatement. The Japanese designer is world-renowned for her her innovative, visionary fabrics - although I hadn't even heard of her until a few years ago. Now, whenever I'm feeling low on creativity I can look to her work and feel inspired.

Sudo is fearless when it comes to experimentation - she folds her fabric, dissolves it, and in the image above, burns it. She created the cloth by weaving very thin strands of stainless steel together and then holding it over an open flame.

My favorites though, are the textiles from her 'Scrapyard' series. In this project she left nails, barbed wire and iron plates (shown above) out in the elements to rust. Some people fight rust, others embrace it. MoMa has a nice video Reiko Sudo creating the pieces in her 'Scrapyard' series here.