1. Practice / Research 

Tending to Scraps 

2025

Tending to Scraps is an Honours project by Sapphire Goldberg, within which design-led research and practice entangle and de-tangle values of care, craft and slow-making in visual design.

This project was born out of observing the material sustainability practices in Fashion, and questioning why I couldn’t seem to grasp my own discipline of Visual Communication Design’s responsibilities in this space, especially as a practice long intertwined with capitalism and consumerism.

It was also pushed forward by my decision to allow my lens as a sentimental, craft-oriented person to seep into my work as a designer.

My final project takes form as a collection of experiments and the research that informed them, that ultimately explores how I may develop a visual design practice centred in care, craft and slow making.


Research

The trajectory of my research, simplified was:

Visual communication design’s relationship with capitlism, speed  and consumption

Fashion sustainability practices & theorists

Craft processes

Slow making

Feminism and relational ontology as frameworks through which to view design knowledge and practice

Shifting to a design practice centered in care and slowness

My contextual research anchors

Download the full research paper (if you like) below:

Research_paper




2. The Binder  



Tending to Scraps takes form in an archive binder, split into 3 chapters based on key values pulled from my research: Upcycling, Caring and Crafting. Each chapter is followed by two experiments (detailed in the left panel) which were developed alongside my research into each area. View the structure below 



Navigating the binder
When thinking about the final form for my project, I wanted to create something adaptable that embodied the fluidity of my design thinking and practices over the year. The binder form is intended to allow for myself or anyone with the book to add to and adapt it; perhaps slotting their own work and experiments in or adding values outside of the 3 I have included.

This book of sorts is a starting point for myself and our community of practice rather than a finished, finalised artefact. Creating ‘Tending to Scraps’ has helped me realise that design can be fluid and unending, constantly morphing as us and our environment does.

A glossary of terms...
It’s also a poster!



A closer look


These ‘insight’ sections and the glossary were risograph printed by Alisa at Pinch Press


A glossary of terms from the book, with some of my own thoughts on them and how I”m re-defining them for my practice
A glossary of terms from the book, with some of my own thoughts on them and how I”m re-defining them for my practice
A glossary of terms from the book, with some of my own thoughts on them and how I”m re-defining them for my practice





1.1 Scrappy 
Book


March 2025
[Upcycling] Scrappy Book is an interpretation of the fashion practice of upcycling, creating something new from saved paper, misprints, offcuts from past projects.

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1.2 Screenprinting
type


June 2025
[Upcycling]
Screenprinting second hand tees with various textile and craft-inspired type experiments. 

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2.1 Threads


March 2025
[Crafting]
Threads is a documentation of me learning how to darn, and the material and emotional meaning carried by the practice.

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2.2 Royal 200


April 2025
[Crafting]
A font made from an alphabet written out on a typewriter, named Royal 200 after the typewriter that made it. 

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3.1 Soft Substances


March 2025
[Caring]
Soft Substances is an exhibition proposal that showcases the AIDS Memorial Quilts from the Powerhouse archive alongside textile works by David McDiarmid and other late and contemporary queer designers. 

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3.2 On Knitting


July/August 2025
[Caring]
On Knitting is a zine made in collaboration with designer and my best friend, Sancia. It is about knitting as a healing force for dealing with grief and change. 

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© Sapphire Goldberg 2025
This website was made on Gadigal Land.