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9. TEXTILE AS SCAFFOLD

Crystalization

Alum crystal in organza fabric

Alum crystal in tulle fabric

Alum crystal in conductive thread

Alum crystal in velvet and grid fabrics

Alum crystal in tulle fabric

Alum crystal in silk 100%

Alum crystal in 3D fabric (PLA)

Alum Crystal

Materials

Technically, all you need to grow alum crystals is alum, hot water, and a container. You don’t actually need to measure the water and alum, but this “recipe” is a good starting point:

  • 2-1/2 tablespoons alum
  • 1/2 cups hot tap water
  • Nylon fishing line
  • Pencil, butter knife, or ruler
  • Clean jars
  • Spoon
  • Paper towel or coffee filter

How to make

  1. Put a quantity of water to boil. (If you want to have colored crystals you can add food coloring)
  2. Stir in the alum, a bit at a time, until it stops dissolving. You may not need to add the full amount. This makes a saturated solution.
  3. After the solution reaches saturation, strain the liquid through a coffee filter and pour into a sterile container.
  4. Dip the fabric into the solution but remember that it needs to be suspended without touching the sides of the container and 1mm from its base. For this, use the fishing line / catch / pencil to suspend.

  1. Loosely cover the jar with a paper towel or coffee filter to keep out dust. Let the jar sit in an undisturbed location. Crystals start to appear within a couple of hours. If you like, you can let them grow until you are satisfied with their size.
:warning:
Grow your crystals in an undisturbed location. ...

Lycra + paper dough

I found this reference very interesting and used it as a starting point for this activity. Initially I need to make the paper dough to fill the lycra sock and make ties that resemble the reference.

I cut some old magazine paper into very small pieces and let it soak for 24 hours in a bowl of water. As soon as I took it out of the sauce I used the sauce water to grind it in the blender. It is important to use plenty of water for a small amount of paper.

I filled a lycra sock with the paper dough and tied it with string.

I let it air dry for two days.

With the result I thought it might have been better to have used a liquid material to fill. The fact that I didn't use any glue on the paper mass ended up leaving it shattered.

Kombucha leather molding

Labels are on most garments and it is something that is removed even before you wear the garment. I thought of making a mold with the name of the PLASMA brand - a project I'm currently developing. Shaping the brand name gives me the possibility of trying to shape the symbols of care with the purchased piece later.

Creating a mold

  • 1 -Rasterize the font. I used inkscape to convert my font to dots so that Rhino could read it.

  • 2 - I used the program Rhinoceros to create the 3D model of the mold. I used the commands:

rectangle extrudecrv boolean diference boolean split

  • 3 - After finishing the 3D mold, I saved the file as stl. As I don't have a CNC in my city, I will test it with a 3D printer

  • 4 - I opened the STL file in the CURA software and configured the printing with the following parameters:

3D Models

Plasma Negative Mold by iaanneecabral on Sketchfab

Plasma Positive Mold by iaanneecabral on Sketchfab

3D printed mold

positive mold, Iane Cabral , 2021

When printing the second half of the mold I realized that it didn't fit.

Research

Last update: 2022-06-30