Master of Science / Department of Apparel, Textiles & Interior Design / Sherry J. Haar and Kim Y. Hiller Connell / Many sustainable garments do not engage wide consumer interest, nor encourage eco-conscious purchasing. Meanwhile, mass consumption of unsustainable apparel contributes to environmental degradation (Black, 2008). However, Niinimäki (2010) suggests that engaging consumers in the design and development of environmentally sustainable products could improve the balance between environmental design decisions and functional, aesthetic, and emotional qualities (Lamb & Kallal, 1992). The purpose of this practice-based research was to (a) identify apparel and environmental attitudes and consumption behaviors of potential sustainable apparel consumers, (b) generate sustainable apparel design concept and product through use of participatory design methods, and (c) evaluate the sustainable concept, product, and participatory method. The sample was 10 female university students. Consumer data was collected through an online (i.e., Facebook) ethnographic journal and a focus group. Qualitative analysis generated the target market’s ideal apparel characteristics and ideal environmental apparel characteristics as apparel offering versatility and variety within their existing wardrobes; elements expressive of their personalities; simple and inexpensive maintenance; organic or recycled materials; and less textile waste at disposal. Additionally, it was determined that participants had low knowledge of the apparel and textile industry and its environmental impacts. Generation of sustainable apparel design ideas occurred through a second focus group session. Analysis of the focus group data, combined with the researcher’s tacit sustainable design knowledge, formed a design concept. The sustainable apparel design concept was comprised of three characteristics reflective of the target market’s ideals and design suggestions: be versatile through various temperatures; social settings, and environments; be convertible through temporary adjustment of functional and aesthetic elements; and be transitional allowing the garment to be layered for greater thermal insulation without detracting from the appearance. The sustainable apparel concept was an application of the pre-existing Design for User Interaction sustainable design strategy. The sustainable apparel design concept was then applied to the development of an outerwear garment and presented to the participants and mentors as a digital sketch. The design addressed the sustainable design concept through interchangeable envelope-style shell layers, an insertable thermal core layer, a buttoned closure at the hemline and interconnecting button points for added alignment between layers. In this garment, the researcher applied participants’ suggestions of style, materials, and inclusion of a core layer. Following sketch refinement, two prototypes were constructed. The first prototype consisted of a thermal core layer and outer coat layer. Due to challenges with the core layer fabric, the second prototype modified the core layer material and style. Additionally, in the second prototype, the shell was made sleeveless and both a bolero style jacket and lining were added. Dual button fasteners connected the layers. During the third focus group session, participants evaluated the design concept, second garment prototype, and the participatory design methods. Participants noted that the design concept provided increased ease of garment care (which could potentially increase the frequency of laundering); ease of garment storage; and increased versatility through varying temperatures. Participants’ suggestions for prototype refinement included the addition of a kick-pleat and reduction of button alignment points. Prototype development did not reach completion during this study. Further refinement of the garment’s pattern and fit, implementation of additional aesthetic/functional elements, and development of an intuitive transformation are necessary. Participant evaluation of participatory methods and study participation were the use of Facebook as an online ethnographic journal made daily participation easy and allowed the researcher to become familiar with their personalities, increasing their comfort at later stages of the research. Participants felt their suggestions were evident in the garment prototype and were as involved as their experience and knowledge allowed. The only participant suggestion regarding the participatory design experience was the addition of updates informing participants of the design progress between focus group sessions. Though the concept and resulting garment were not exceedingly original, participants were pleased with the fruition of their ideas. This finding indicates a willingness to participate in the design process, supportive of participatory design.

This is a personal project about a fed-up woman who sits down on the chair by the pottery wheel simply because she craves it. It is about conducting a non-result oriented design process. A process where the making, the closeness between the mind and hand, is both the research and mediation. It is a project that acknowledges the potential care has in relation to design, while it's dealing with the controversial aspects of a woman caring for herself. The project is a snap, a feminist snap, represented and materialized through the objects of clay. Where a collapsed bowl, a blob, becomes a materialized revolt against everything women are being told to endure. It is a project that brings design and poetry together. Aiming to explore how objects can gain agency and be in dialogue with society. How objects can materialize both the resistance against, and the result of, the patriarchal structure.

Representations of the Muslim female are value-laden synonymous with the act of veiling. Veiling has fuelled political, social and academic debates and this study contributes to the ongoing conversation alongside identity formation by examining the image of the Muslim female on-screen with due attention given to animation. The image of the Muslim female is drawn in all manner of directions from that of the belly-dancing beauty to the 'bundle in black', the latter often associated with terrorism, particularly post-9/11 and the consequent 'War on Terror'. There is another direction that proffers an idealised image of the good daughter and dutiful wife against that of the fallen woman. Such constructs I argue tend to rid the Muslim female of her agency. This thesis examines how and why various representations of the Muslim female have emerged and changed, whilst some aspects have remained stagnant over time, thus positioning on-screen representations within their historical context. This project goes beyond traditional academic methods of critical analysis in reading film. The hybridised role of the researcher-animator enables the study to offer a critique from that of the spectator, but with the added vantage point of the practitioner with a set focus on the making of meaning. The interdisciplinary approach incorporates film theory, specifically concerned with representations of race and gender. The work of Muslim women scholar-activists informs and inspires the practice in reclaiming the status of the Muslim woman. Their approach lies within three trajectories being gender-sensitive interpretations of the Qur'an, a recovery of Muslim women's history and a critique on representation. Their approaches fall in line with the aim of this project to reclaim the historical Muslim figure on screen, whereas animation provides an attractive yet versatile mode of production to carry out such a task. Key questions guiding this study are: why are current and existing portrayals of the historical Muslim female problematic? Why do these portrayals need to be addressed? Why does an alternative approach to the portrayal of the historical Muslim female need to be devised and put into practice? Finding the answers to these questions lie in the undertaking of the practice. The practice consists of the first two episodes of a five-part series titled 'Sultan Razia', and as the title suggests the animation is based upon a legendary historical Muslim female figure, who ruled the Sultanate of Delhi between 634-638 Hejira/1236-1240CE. This project is an example of how theory works in practice and vice-versa to determine an audio-visual practice that re-inserts the Muslim female into a history that breaks away from established cliches.

This practice-based research articulates a performer's perspective from within the rapidly expanding field of mixed music, wherein traditional acoustic instruments are augmented by means of live electronics. Contemporary technology presents a panoply of sonic and interactive affordances and diverse avenues of potential for a contemporary practice of the clarinet. Pursuing a move from a technically passive approach towards self-efficient onstage operation, the author articulates a journey in which a hybridity of instrumental expertise and technical naivety develops into an embedded practice. A framework of humanising is proposed to establish codes of practice based on the embodied skill and priorities of the onstage performer. A pragmatic and personal approach emerges to managing issues of sound, control, and engagement, with an emphasis on viable rehearsal and performance practices that ultimately privilege an ongoing attention to liveness. The portfolio of sound recordings and the observances contained in this thesis contribute to a growing body of performer-led accounts in a rich environment for the development of new creative work and collaboration, and to facilitating access to interactive music for performers wishing to explore the field. A set of case studies trace three broad roles across a spectrum of creative agency within an interdisciplinary practice of the clarinet, situated at a nexus of diverse approaches - from performing composed works (executant interpreter) to non-idiomatic free improvisation (enactive composer), via hybrid works that blur these authorial distinctions (enabled interpreter). Negotiating multiple, interdependent influences within these respective performance ecologies, and moving over time from a status of technical novice towards one of proficiency and expertise (Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1980), a growing sense of embodied instrumentality is encountered (Nijs et al. 2009). The additional technology becomes less an extension of the instrument, rather the performer becomes present in a new holistic entity (Riva 2009; Rebelo 2006), with an attendant, ongoing re-evaluation of personal sound concept. Instrumental musicianship is reframed as inhabiting an assemblage of tools that filter and resonate physical energy, identity, and culture, and is directed towards an optimal performing presence.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyse the effectiveness and cost of fissure sealant treatment in preventing dental caries in children in a practice-based research network using survival analysis. The survival times of first permanent molars in children were analysed in three countries: in Finland (age cohorts 1970–1972 and 1980–1982), in Sweden (1980–1982) and in Greece (1980–1982), and additionally at two municipal health centres in Finland (age cohorts 1988–1990 in Kemi and 1990 in Vantaa). The study population comprised altogether 8 551 children. The data were collected manually from paper dental records (Finland, Sweden and Greece), and an automatic data-mining system for collecting data from electronic dental records was used in the case of the two health centres in Finland (Kemi and Vantaa). Comparisons of the survival times of first molars caries-free were performed between sealed and non-sealed individual teeth, and between the subjects in cases where a subject’s all first permanent molars were either sealed or non-sealed before the age of eight years. The cumulative costs of caries risk determination, use of xylitol, fissure sealant treatment, and restorations were calculated based on the data from the digital dental records of the health centres of Kemi and Vantaa. The results stressed the importance of caries-risk assessment on a tooth and subject level, when estimating the need for sealing treatment. Sealing of first molars of very high caries risk children (caries present in any of the permanent first molars before the age of eight years) seemed to be insufficient to prevent further dental decay later on. Instead, sealants were beneficial in caries prevention in medium-risk children (caries present in any of the permanent first molars between the ages of eight and ten years). Low-risk children (no caries in any of the permanent first molars before the age of ten years) did not benefit remarkably from sealant treatment. When sealant treatment were targeted only at high caries risk children based on risk-determination at the age of two years and all their permanent first molars were sealed (Kemi), their total treatment costs later were higher compared to the low-risk children, who were left unsealed. Significant differences in the survival curves of sealed and non-sealed first molars on a tooth and subject level confirmed that a translational approach is needed to study the effectiveness of preventive dental treatment in practice. The practice-based study model provides a good overview on the situation in real-life circumstances and helps to incorporate the evidence-based dentistry study results into everyday dental practice. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli analysoida fissuurapinnoituksen tehokkuutta ja kustannuksia lasten hammaskariesta ehkäisevänä toimenpiteenä käytäntöön perustuvan tutkimusmenetelmän ja elinkaarianalyysin avulla. Ensimmäisten pysyvien poskihampaiden elinkaarianalyysi tehtiin Suomen (ikäkohortit 1970–1972 ja 1980–1982), Ruotsin (1980–1982) ja Kreikan (1980–1982) aineistojen sekä lisäksi kahden suomalaisen terveyskeskusaineiston (Kemi 1988–1990 and Vantaa 1990) perusteella. Tutkimusaineisto koostui yhteensä 8 551 lapsesta. Tutkimukseen tarvittavat tiedot kerättiin manuaalisesti potilaspapereista Suomen, Ruotsin ja Kreikan aineistoista sekä elektronisesti suoraan kahden suomalaisen terveyskeskuksen (Kemi ja Vantaa) digitaalisista potilastietojärjestelmistä. Ensimmäisten pysyvien poskihampaiden elinkaarikäyriä verrattiin pinnoitettujen ja pinnoittamattomien hampaiden sekä pinnoitettujen ja pinnoittamattomien henkilöiden (kaikki neljä pysyvää ensimmäistä poskihammasta joko pinnoitettu tai pinnoittamatta kahdeksanteen ikävuoteen mennessä) välillä. Kumulatiiviset kustannukset karieksen riskimäärityksestä, ksylitolin käytöstä, pinnoituksista ja täytteistä laskettiin Kemin ja Vantaan terveyskeskusaineistojen perusteella. Tutkimuksen tulokset korostavat riskimäärityksen tärkeyttä pinnoituspäätöksen tekemisessä sekä hammaskohtaisesti että potilaskohtaisesti. Korkean kariesriskin lapsille (kariesta yhdessä tai useammassa ensimmäisessä pysyvässä poskihampaassa ennen kahdeksatta ikävuotta) pinnoitusten teho näytti olevan riittämätön estämään karieksen kehittymisen myöhemmällä iällä. Pinnoitukset olivat tehokkaita keskisuuren kariesriskin (kariesta yhdessä tai useammassa ensimmäisessä pysyvässä poskihampaassa kahdeksan ja kymmenen ikävuoden välillä) lapsilla. Matalan kariesriskin lapset (ei kariesta yhdessäkään ensimmäisessä pysyvässä poskihampaassa ennen kymmenettä ikävuotta) eivät hyötyneet merkittävästi pinnoitteiden kariesta ehkäisevästä vaikutuksesta. Kun pinnoitteet kohdennettiin valikoidusti lapsille joilla oli kahden vuoden iässä todettu korkea kariesriski ja heidän kaikki ensimmäiset pysyvät poskihampaat pinnoitettiin (Kemi), heidän osaltaan kokonaishoidosta seuranneet kustannukset myöhemmin olivat korkeampia verrattuna lapsiin joilla oli matala kariesriski ja joiden hampaita ei pinnoitettu. Pinnoitettujen ja pinnoittamattomien ensimmäisten pysyvien poskihampaiden hammas- ja henkilökohtaisten elinkaarikäyrien tilastolliset erot tutkituissa kohorteissa osoittavat, että käytäntöön perustuva tutkimusmenetelmä on suositeltava analysoitaessa hammashoidon tehokkuutta jokapäiväisessä toiminnassa. Käytäntöön perustuva tutkimusmalli antaa hyvän käsityksen todellisissa hoito-olosuhteissa tehtyjen toimenpiteiden tehokkuudesta ja avaa siihen uuden näkökulman sekä edesauttaa soveltamaan näyttöön perustuvan hammaslääketieteen tutkimustuloksia jokapäiväiseen hammaslääkärintyöhön vastaanotolla.

Cette recherche vise à interroger la façon dont des dispositifs organisationnels (formels et informels) façonnent la démarche d’alerte, lancée par un employé qui souhaite témoigner d’une fraude ou d’un manquement à l’éthique organisationnel.Inscrite dans un paradigme interprétativiste, notre design de recherche repose sur des entretiens qualitatifs ainsi que sur des récits de vie conduits avec des lanceurs d’alerte. Nos résultats permettent de montrer l’inopérance des dispositifs formels (outils de recueil de l’alerte) mis en place par l’organisation pour recueillir la parole de l’employé, qui manquent de traiter correctement l’alerte qui leur est signalée ; d’autre part, nous caractérisons l’idée selon laquelle d’autres dispositifs, plus informels, placent eux-mêmes, par leur non-réponse ou réponses ambiguës, l’employé en situation de lancer l’alerte, en dehors des dispositifs qui avaient été mis en place par l’organisation. Enfin, nous interrogeons la possibilité qui est laissée à un employé d’exprimer un doute lorsque celui-ci concerne le bien-fondé éthique de certaines pratiques organisationnelles. / This research aims to examine the way in which organizational mechanisms (both formal and informal) shape the whistleblowing process initiated by employees wanting to expose a fraud or a breach of organizational ethics.Our research design adopts an interpretivist paradigm and is based on qualitative and life-story interviews conducted with whistleblowers. Our results show the ineffectiveness of the formal mechanisms implemented by organizations to collectemployee testimonies (tools for gathering employee warnings), which fail to correctly address the whistleblowing that is signaled to them. We also describe the suggestion that other, more informal, mechanisms, by failing to respond or byproviding ambiguous responses, place employees in a situation where they feel compelled to blow the whistle, outside the mechanisms implemented by the organization. Finally, we examine the possibilities available to employees to express doubts concerning the ethical soundness of certain organizational practices.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humantities, Dramatic Arts, 2012 / This creative practice-based research report explores a phenomenological approach to the body as a sensorially, audibly, visibly and viscerally present entity. The research argues for an experience of embodiment that highlights the primacy of the body within the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in South Africa. It addresses theoretical and methodological concerns of theatre making as a creative practice for interrogating the body’s lived experience of HIV and AIDS. The study argues that theatre has tended to describe the surface experience of the trauma of HIV and AIDS and that it has failed to speak to the lived body experience of HIV and AIDS. In so doing, this report excavates the innovation of a theatre making process that helps illuminate complex human experience through performance. This research report is written in a way that allows the reader access to the process that was developed by the researcher/theatre maker/writer. Through a facilitated process of theatre making, this study focuses on the four co-researchers/performers lived experiences of HIV and AIDS and how through the use of stimuli (visual art and elements of nature) and the use of the combination of somatic play, movement and sound, they evoked and exhumed their bodies living memory. The accounts that were made in the exploration are presented in this report and in the performance and recording (DVD) of Stains Inner. This research posits the body as a knowing entity in the era of HIV and AIDS in South Africa and highlights the process of on-flow in theatre making as a fluid dynamic process through which the body can viscerally access the latent lived experiences associated with the pandemic. It is a powerful process that enhances the body aesthetic in theatre. The study concludes that this form of theatre making has the capacity to create a transformative experience for the performer and audience. The study also puts forth recommendations that would possibly shift the landscape of HIV and AIDS discourse.

Peter and the Wolf (1936) is a transmedial work based on a Russian fairy tale composed and written by Sergey Prokofiev . Prokofiev’s purpose with the work was amongst others to introduce children to the instruments of the symphony orchestra. This study examines the possibility of creating a new Afrikaans versification of the text in order to introduce this work to Afrikaans-speaking children. The creative product of the research consists of a picture book and a corresponding soundtrack together with the original music and a recitation of the text. The researcher cooperated with other artists in order to achieve the final product. Since the realisation of a creative product forms an integral part of this study, practice-based research has been utilised. The framework for practice-based research by Scrivener and Chapman (2004) has been used for the design of the study, the implementation thereof (theory and practice), as well as for the structure of the dissertation. The first step of the framework of Scrivener and Chapman (2004) entails the pre-project reflection, i.e. the identification of issues, as well as the concerns and interests of the researcher. It is important to the researcher that children are exposed to the instruments of the symphony orchestra, and she is also interested in picture books and fairy tales. Research revealed that there is no recent Afrikaans version of Peter and the Wolf. She consequently decided to do a versification of the text. The identification of the source domains relevant to the research theme and the creative project forms the second step of the framework. The initial source domains that were identified and studied were the theoretical concepts of intertextuality, intermediality and creative adaptation (Chapter 2). Peter and the Wolf originated as an intermedial work and thus the intermedial creative product is also a creative adaptation of the original work. As the study progressed, additional domains for research have been identified and examined. These are music, narrative poetry, children’s book illustrations, developmental psychology, cognitive narratology and information regarding the listener or reader (Chapter 3). Insight into the art forms and media can positively influence the progress of the creative product and can aid in creating an improved understanding of the intermedial effect of the total creative product. Because the target audience of the picture book is children between the ages of six and eight years, research was done on the developmental psychology of the child in the middle childhood years. In combination with this, cognitive narratology was studied to determine the reception of the creative product, and to assist with the analysis of the existing texts of Peter and the Wolf. Thereafter three existing editions of Peter and the Wolf were studied, based on the theoretical framework, and the intermedial interplay and creative possibilities for different medial combinations were examined (Chapter 4). These texts are: 1) a picture book, translated by Lydia Pienaar (1975); it is an equivalent translation of the original Russian text and has become a classical edition of the work in Afrikaans; 2) a poetic version by Philip de Vos of a performance text with the original music (2003); and 3) an alternative modern edition with musical arrangement, text and illustrations by Gavin Friday and Bono (2003). The latter combination of text, music, illustrations and recitation, was also used for the creative work in this study. Cycles of production and work reflection form part of the creative phase of practice-based research. In Chapter 5, the different phases of the versification process are discussed by analysing different versions of the manuscript. There is also a report on the co-operation with the other artists, and the development of the different media (the illustrations, the music realisation, the recitation and the sound mixing). In the post-project reflection the interplay between the theoretical research and the creative work was examined, as well as the contribution of the different research fields to the final creative project and the intermedial interplay between the different media that were used in the creative work. It was found that practice-based research is a very successful research method for a postgraduate study in which a creative project forms part of the study. The research method is not only advantageous for the development of the creative project, but also for thorough theoretical research. Furthermore, the researcher came to the conclusion that an improved understanding of the complex theoretical approaches develops when they are practically applied. This understanding is not necessarily based on theoretical research, but on the experience that was gained throughout this study. The creative product of this study can expand the horizon of the child in an intermedial way that will benefit the listener. Insight has been obtained on the way in which such a project can be undertaken. Furthermore, other intermedial projects can flow from this project. A translation of the poetic text can make this book and CD accessible to a large number of South African children. / MA (Afrikaans and Dutch), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Peter and the Wolf (1936) is a transmedial work based on a Russian fairy tale composed and written by Sergey Prokofiev . Prokofiev’s purpose with the work was amongst others to introduce children to the instruments of the symphony orchestra. This study examines the possibility of creating a new Afrikaans versification of the text in order to introduce this work to Afrikaans-speaking children. The creative product of the research consists of a picture book and a corresponding soundtrack together with the original music and a recitation of the text. The researcher cooperated with other artists in order to achieve the final product. Since the realisation of a creative product forms an integral part of this study, practice-based research has been utilised. The framework for practice-based research by Scrivener and Chapman (2004) has been used for the design of the study, the implementation thereof (theory and practice), as well as for the structure of the dissertation. The first step of the framework of Scrivener and Chapman (2004) entails the pre-project reflection, i.e. the identification of issues, as well as the concerns and interests of the researcher. It is important to the researcher that children are exposed to the instruments of the symphony orchestra, and she is also interested in picture books and fairy tales. Research revealed that there is no recent Afrikaans version of Peter and the Wolf. She consequently decided to do a versification of the text. The identification of the source domains relevant to the research theme and the creative project forms the second step of the framework. The initial source domains that were identified and studied were the theoretical concepts of intertextuality, intermediality and creative adaptation (Chapter 2). Peter and the Wolf originated as an intermedial work and thus the intermedial creative product is also a creative adaptation of the original work. As the study progressed, additional domains for research have been identified and examined. These are music, narrative poetry, children’s book illustrations, developmental psychology, cognitive narratology and information regarding the listener or reader (Chapter 3). Insight into the art forms and media can positively influence the progress of the creative product and can aid in creating an improved understanding of the intermedial effect of the total creative product. Because the target audience of the picture book is children between the ages of six and eight years, research was done on the developmental psychology of the child in the middle childhood years. In combination with this, cognitive narratology was studied to determine the reception of the creative product, and to assist with the analysis of the existing texts of Peter and the Wolf. Thereafter three existing editions of Peter and the Wolf were studied, based on the theoretical framework, and the intermedial interplay and creative possibilities for different medial combinations were examined (Chapter 4). These texts are: 1) a picture book, translated by Lydia Pienaar (1975); it is an equivalent translation of the original Russian text and has become a classical edition of the work in Afrikaans; 2) a poetic version by Philip de Vos of a performance text with the original music (2003); and 3) an alternative modern edition with musical arrangement, text and illustrations by Gavin Friday and Bono (2003). The latter combination of text, music, illustrations and recitation, was also used for the creative work in this study. Cycles of production and work reflection form part of the creative phase of practice-based research. In Chapter 5, the different phases of the versification process are discussed by analysing different versions of the manuscript. There is also a report on the co-operation with the other artists, and the development of the different media (the illustrations, the music realisation, the recitation and the sound mixing). In the post-project reflection the interplay between the theoretical research and the creative work was examined, as well as the contribution of the different research fields to the final creative project and the intermedial interplay between the different media that were used in the creative work. It was found that practice-based research is a very successful research method for a postgraduate study in which a creative project forms part of the study. The research method is not only advantageous for the development of the creative project, but also for thorough theoretical research. Furthermore, the researcher came to the conclusion that an improved understanding of the complex theoretical approaches develops when they are practically applied. This understanding is not necessarily based on theoretical research, but on the experience that was gained throughout this study. The creative product of this study can expand the horizon of the child in an intermedial way that will benefit the listener. Insight has been obtained on the way in which such a project can be undertaken. Furthermore, other intermedial projects can flow from this project. A translation of the poetic text can make this book and CD accessible to a large number of South African children. / MA (Afrikaans and Dutch), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design / Sherry J. Haar / Research about military wives has been limited. In academia, most research centers on the soldier and/or the family as a unit. When literature does address only the wife’s perspective it rarely presents a positive portrayal of her life. However, it is not just literature that shows a gap in exposing the voice of the military wife. Art-based works rarely focus on her perspective; and methodologies, such as practice-based research, rarely utilize actual voices as inspiration. The aim of the current study was to discover the voice of the military wife, examine it through a feminist lens, and then translate those voices into artwork that represented the collective, lived experience of the women interviewed. Three methodologies were utilized to analyze and translate the voices of military wives into textile art. These three methodologies: practice-based research, phenomenology, and feminist inquiry provided a suitable structure for shaping the study to fulfill the project aim. Interviews conducted with 22 military wives revealed two overarching themes: militarization and marriage; as well as multiple subthemes. Three subthemes were recognized as being the most prominent: relationships, separation, and collective experience. These themes were used as the inspiration for the creation and installation of three textile art pieces. The current study serves to fill the gaps in both the literature and the artistic process by presenting both the positive and negative aspects of the military wife’s lived experience and using that lived experience as inspiration for textile art.