The active role materials play in the emergence of outcomes from making is considered in this paper in relation to the opportunities provided by adopting working methods that acknowledge and favour such an active role in practice-based design research. Allowing another "voice" to come into play in the making process widens the possibilities for unforeseen, generative outcomes to be revealed. Intuitive working modalities that explore material tendencies and capacities and support their manifestation, combined with structured processes of exploration and supported by documentation, reflection and analysis methods, offer opportunities to devise productive hybrid methodologies for practice-based research in textile design. This paper describes an accidental event arising from hands-on engagement with a material, leading to an unforeseen result. It further considers how, by broadening my understanding of the material's potential and foregrounding its active role in the making process, the event motivated a shift in the focus of the research and the consequent redefinition of its objectives while influencing the methods subsequently used in the exploration.
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