Red sea as a source of inspiration for different textile applications to serve tourism in Egypt

Abstract

The Red sea is one of the most fascinating areas in the world. Egypt’s Red sea has abundant tourism infrastructure, which attracts tourists from around the world. A rare coral reef and kinds of multi-colored fish underwater is a testament to the work of Mother Nature that could not be replicated by mankind. The areas near the coast provide an opportunity to observe natural marine life earning special tourism position by its aquatic treasures. Egypt’s Red Sea aboriginal culture and unique nature, as well as being a tourism destination, offers a great potential for enhancing design value. Yet design and culture are oddly similar, where both are fundamental results of human existence and activity. The main aim of this work to innovate new modern designs for fabric printing of touristic products, by selecting the artistic elements of the marine nature and cultural life in the Red Sea, then creating textile designs inspired from them. These creative designs can be used in different applications (women, children apparel and interior furnishing) to serve tourism in Egypt. The researcher used the analysis descriptive method in explain Cultural and natural features of the Red Sea to identify their characteristics and come up with innovative designs and analyzing the design of products and interpreting the results concentrating on the most important ones; and the applied experimental method in innovation designs inspired from Cultural and natural elements of the Red Sea that consist of different stages aiming to printing and implementing different touristic products.. The study includes:- Part 1: Definition of the study and Previous Studies This part deals with: - the research plan consisting of (Problems of the study , Significance of the study, Objectives of the study, Postulates of the study, Hypothesis of the study, limits of the study, methodology of the study, Tools of the study, Terminology of the study) . - The previous studies as this study took a general brief about the previous studies and shedding light upon the points of similarity and differences.

Part 2: Theoretical Studies which contain the following:

a. Theoretical Studies of the red sea according to: - Geographical location, - Tourism and its activities such as therapeutic, recreational, historical, religious, environmental tourism and safari adventure, - Cultural features of red sea - Natural features of red sea (plant and animals) b. Theoretical Studies of design according to: - Culture, nature and design, - The design and creative processes, - Role and importance of Computer technology in textile design and apparel c. Study the different Printing methods applied on the fabric such as stencil, silk screen, heat transfer, and digital (inkjet).

d. Study the Functional finishing as Hydrophobic and oleophobic finishing. Part 3: - It included a detailed presentation of the materials and tools used in the experimental work, methods of implementation and test methods.

Part 4: It has included the results of discussions and practical applications, and the most important are:

1- A cultural and/or natural model was designed. Where, designs were made inspired by Egypt’s Red Sea cultural and/or natural elements, until they reached the practical implementation stage. The different phases, which the designs went through according to the prepared model, are the following:

A. Selecting some of Egypt’s Red Sea cultural and/or marine natural elements and drawing their analytical lines and abstracted elements.

B. Innovated (17 number) of various design compositions inspired from the selected artistic elements. These design compositions were relied on the manual techniques and the computer technologies using Adobe Photoshop and illustrator graphic programs in drawing and coloring them. Some of the compositions based on the abstraction of artistic elements and others created by using directly the artistic elements as in marine nature of the red sea. C. The repetition, color palettes, and different suggested applications were performed for the innovated designs. But, the repetition, color palettes were not performed for the designs created by using directly the artistic elements as in marine nature of the red sea. The different suggested applications were geared mostly to print fabrics of women, children apparel and interior furnishing in a new modern vision.

2- Evaluation the Artistic and aesthetic values of the innovative design compositions and its suggested applications. They were presented to a group of specialists in the fields of printing textile design and tourism for evaluating them through the designed questionnaire. Then the statistical results were subjected.

3- Ten of different designs from seventeen of innovated design inspired from cultural and/or marine natural artistic elements were selected according to the highest percent of agreement and opinion survey of specialists and analyzed their artistic elements according to the design elements and principles that affect a successful of the final design.

4- One of suggested applications for each innovated design was practically applied on the fabrics by different methods of printing techniques as stencil, silk screen, heat transfer, and digital (inkjet). Tie/dye and stitchery were also used in some designs.

5- All used fabrics were subjected to finishing treatment using Evo® Protect FXM as water and oil repellent finishing agent on a lab-scale, where it has been proven a positive impact as water and oil repellent due to the formation of a repellent film on the fiber surface, where the fluorocarbon chains of Evo® Protect FXM reduced the surface tension of the fabric to lower than that of water and oil providing their ability to hydro- and oleophobicity. Hence, added high values for them.

6- The physico- mechanical properties as Tensile and Tear strength for woven fabrics and bursting strength for knitted fabrics were evaluated before and after the treatment. It was observed that, bursting strength for knitted fabrics increased after the treatment. Also, there are differences in the properties of tensile and Tear strength for woven fabrics in both warp and weft directions before and after the treatment.

7- Light fastness was evaluated on Hp canvas fabric printed with Hp latex inks (CMYK) for wall-hangings. It was observed that, the printed ink colors show results between good and very good light fastness properties. This may be due to better thermal fixation and affinity and accessibility of fabric to printing with these inks.

8- The printed/treated fabrics were implemented in several applications to serve tourism in Egypt. These applications applied into different apparel (three women and two children clothes) and interior furnishing (Pouf, cushions, quilted Bedspread and different sizes of wall hangings). 9- The printed and implemented products (10 numbers) were presented to a group of specialists in the fields of printing textile design, clothes implementation, and tourism through the questionnaire. Then collecting answers and calculation the percent of agreement and success of each product