Sarah Barnes

Digital Print and Laser Cutting Intern at the CFPR

Sarah explores themes of architecture and the urban enviroment within her design work. She is interested in how wall coverings in particular, can enhance the way we interact with the spaces around us.

Up to this point in her MA in Multidisciplinary Printmaking, she has been introduced to a number of traditional printmaking techniques that she has not encountered before; these include etching, lithography, and enamelling.

Sarah is very interested in new technologies and how these can be combined with traditional techniques in innovative ways. She has been exploring the potential of laser cutting and digital printing which she has used in the past, and how these processes can form an integral part of her idea development and design practice.

Since March 2011 Sarah has been an intern working alongside Tom Sowden in the Lasercutting Bureau for 1 day a week, developing and improving on her existing skills.

Since January 2011, Sarah has been working with Carinna Parraman at the CFPR, on a wallpaper project, which is sponsored by RolandDG (UK). She has been combining the printing capabilities of the LEC300 UV Roland printer and laser cutting to develop an interactive wall covering. Interaction is a very important element, and she is intrigued by how this can be achieved within wallpaper. Using both printing and cutting, she has incorporated interactive, 3-D, coloured and layered elements within the design:
"Through the unfolding of the laser cut triangular flaps the user can interact with the design, revealing not only the printed pattern beneath but also the gradient colour on the underside of the triangles. The number of triangles that can be folded back is based on the individual’s choice, allowing the wallpaper to be unique. These unfolded elements provided a tactile, textured and very multi-dimensional wall-covering solution, which changes in appearance as one passes in front and the light is reflected at different angles."

Sarah has been offered an internship at the CFPR until June 2012, to develop her ideas in interior and exterior wall coverings.