A Breakaway from the Ritual of Two Dimensionality to Three Dimensionality in Textile Productions: The Case of a Crocodile Haven

Textile productions have always being in two dimensional forms because of the sorption, thermal and light properties of textile materials. However, the ritual of two dimensionality in textile productions is gradually paving way for the production of solid, three dimensional products such as artificial arteries, sutures and casts for bones that are fractured. The researchers aimed at producing monuments from textile materials since this is very rare in the field. Through rigorous experimentations with diverse textile materials and composite techniques such as appliqu, macram, and modeling, the researchers were able to produce the crocodile haven textile monument. The Universal Research approach that utilizes studio based research methods with unstructured interviews and observations as data collecting instrumentations pivoted the investigations that resulted in the production of the three dimensional crocodile haven. Randomly sampled respondents consisting of residents at the Paga Crocodile Pond in the Upper East Region and textile craftsmen at Kumasi Central Market and the Centre for National Culture who are well versed in textile production techniques were involved in the study. The findings from the study revealed that it is possible to produce monumental three dimensional forms in textiles that depict the idea of taxidermy if textile designers creatively explore textile techniques and materials. It recommends that to raise the aesthetic value of textile products while boosting their tourism potentials in Ghana, textile students must expand their creativity potentials through numerous experimentations with the ultimate goal of producing three dimensional products.