3. Circular fashion#

For this week, I continue working on the laser cut scale design I left off last year. The material of choice is thick vegitable tanned leather, and the goal is to have modular scale that when assemble, create a 3D effect that represent dragon scale.

Research#

And a lot of paper cutting and folding.

The effect I want to achieve is a 3D shape some what like this >>

But so far I only got the leather to curve in one direction instead of two. (Origami is haaaaaard.)

Useful links#

Not directly related, but check out this artist’s amazing 3D printed scale like textile/accessory.

Gallery#

After playing around with the pattern on paper, I move on to try it on leather. The thickness of the leather does change the behavior of the fold a lot, but the general idea does hold.

So I start drawing the pattern into Illustrator. (This is actually the final version V5.0 of the drawing, I forgot to take screen shot during the modifying stage.)

First version test cut with laser cutter. (and forgot leather has thickness, the slit is way too narrow for the holding tap to go through :p )

Second version test cut with widened slit and releasing half-through cut in the middle to help the scale fold.

Looks fine, other than the holding tap being too long, and the back side need a second releasing half-through cut to make it fold up better.

This is the third verson test cut, with shorten holding tap, adjusted slit size, and double “fins” on holding taps to squeeze the back piese close.

I’m getting confident the design will work, so I cut a few more fourth version to see if they work together when assembled. Looks pretty good to me!

The final version only has the holding tap shortened a bit to adjust the distance of scales when assembled. Time to start mass production! After finishing cutting the front, I reverse all the pieces while holding the outline in the same place. Doing so allows me to cut the half-through release cut on the back side on the back piece.