3. Circular Fashion

This week’s topic focused on circular and open source fashion, and modular design.

Inspiration

I’ve been playing with and folding paper ever since I was a tot. Unit or modular origami has always been a favorite because I enjoy building beautiful and complex paper structures using simple paper motifs that interlock and fit together in a particular way. In a sense it’s like a puzzle. Some examples of unit origami and a video of a sonoboe structure shown below:

While looking at modular origami examples I came across relatively ~new~ area of origami: tessellation origami. Who knew that the world of origami is so rich and so vast?! What is different about tessellation origami and modular origami is that while modular origami uses units to create a structure, tessellation origami usually made by folding paper into a grid and collapsing that grid into repeated structures. It can get quite complex ! Some cool examples and a video of tessellation origami is shown below:

Assignment

For this week’s assignment, I was tasked with designing a vector based 2D module that when interlocked they create a seamless 3D structure. I was interested in applying my module to millinery specifically so I knew that:

  • I wanted to work with sinimay, a stiff woven straw material made from abaca fibre (abaca is a tree native to the Philippines). This material is used in traditional millinery. It is much stronger than cotton and silk.
  • It was important that my module was simple in design and could be optimized in my digital file and nested to minimize waste.
  • I want a module that when assembled can be made into a 3D cube or can exist flat (2D)

Workflow

This is a summary of my work flow for this assignment:

  • Develop a 2D shape or structure/module using construction paper.
  • Test and prototype module. Determine what is working and what isn’t. Incorporate changes to paper structures, improve the design and iterate !
  • Create a digital file of modules using Adobe illustrator. Nest modules to eliminate waste
  • Test laser cutter settings on sinamay. Determine optimal conditions for this material before cutting out modules.
  • Laser cut modules on sinamay and assemble.
  • Playing with Paper:
  • Before I began creating my 2D module, I created a bunch of sonobe cubes by folding 6 units and assembling them together.

Playing with Paper

For this assignment I used the book "Multidimensional Transformations: Unit Origami" by Tomoko Fuse. This book helped me understand and construct the well known sonobe system. I was able to make several cubes of different sizes.

After getting comfortable with making 6-unit sonobe cubes and understanding how they interlock, I traced the starting unit used for the sonobe system, made a slight modification and tried to make a 2D module out of that. I had some success. I was able to get my modules to interlock in one direction.

Ultimately, I simplified this module even further to make a simple parallelogram with a slit in the middle. It is the same shape as the sonobe cube. My rationale is that I will be able to use this module to make a 3D cube or a 2D/flat textile

Adobe Illustrator

Using illustrator, I was able to make a fairly simple parallelogram, with a slit in the middle for the interlocking mechanism.

I was successfully able to nest my modules. I created 3 different size parallelograms, 2 inches, 1 inch and 0.5 inches.

Now before I cut this out onto sinamay I will try this on paper first!