3. Circular open source fashion¶
Research and inspiration¶
In nature everything is based on patterns. There has been written a lot about the different aspects and the earliest data goes back all the way to the Greek philosopher Pythagoras. Reading tips on the topic here and here.
Fractals are by far the most inspiring pattern in nature. Fractals appear to be the same on different scales. Take a Romanesco, the most beautiful brassica of them all, and look at it closely. It's the same pattern repeating itself in different directions.
The animation studio of Pixar only exists because Loren Carpenter, one of the co-founders, read in Benoit Mandelbrot's book "Form, Chance, and Dimension" about fractals and decided to work with them to develop more realistic computer graphics. These developments gave birth to Pixar and it's beautiful movies. It's thanks to their development we are now able to render special effects, fictitious landscapes and imaginary worlds. Have a look at the sea and sand in this Sandpiper-fragment. Amazing, no?
Paper prototypes¶
I love drawing, so prototyping in paper is a bonus to digital development. After a great forrest walk with Mysa, I decided to base the open source pattern on leaves. Collecting and drying leaves is something I haven't done since primary school, so it took me on a great trip down memory lane.
Once the leaves were dry enough, I was ready to start drawing.
I drew the different leaves in different colours and sizes. Leaving them ready to be copied and cut out with scissors in order to test and decide with which of the leaves I would continue to develop.
All done and ready to start copying and cutting!
With the leaves all cut out, time for some good old fashioned paper prototyping. I love it! The goal is to create an autumn collar with leaves on pieces of bark/trunks. The white paper is based on the gingko leaves and fits together with slots. The leaves will be inserted with their petioles in the trunk parts via little double incisions.
Fire the laser¶
With the paper prototype all finished and looking great, it’s time to fire up the machine. The leaves were traced in illustrator. The black lines will be bitmap engraved on the felt. I’m going for 3mm felt in brown, red, green and yellow. Combined with the engraving, this will give the leaves their autumnal look. Of course the brown felt will be the trunk. All red lines are cutting lines, leaving us with the pieces of trunk and all the leaves.
Game, set: fire. Our big laser cutter will use the 300/20 for the engraving and 100/50 for the cutting. Please check your own machine and make a test first!
To create a full collar you would need about 8 pieces of trunk and roughly 2 times the leaves in each colour.
The next step would be the easiest. Simply put the leaves with their petioles through the designated double cuts. Make sure they’re in tight and you’re all set!
My lovely boyfriend volunteered to model the collar as a bit of a joke, but the joke’s on him as I actually took him up it. It looks great, no?
Shake shake shake¶
Bummer, we forgot to make a little video to show everything stays in place while wearing... Whoops! With my model being at work, I went for the next best model: Mysa!
When she shakes, so truly does it with all her heart. Did you know that the centripetal force varies with distance from the centre of the creature? A team of physics did a ton of research on determing the speed of the oscillation when an animal shakes. Super interesting read: The Wet-Dog Shake!
The team filmed a wide range of dogs shaking, and used the images to calculate the period of oscillation. For a retriever, that turned out to be 4.3 Hz. Mysa is half a retriever, so she should be roughly shaking in the same sence. But, let's conclude: when everything stays on when she shakes, it will surely be sturdy enough :-)
Ready to make your own judgement?
Make your own autumn collar¶
You can find the autumn collar and the files to make one on OScircularfashion. Enjoy making your own version!
The coolest thing: if you want to change the order, go and do so! Or even design your own leaves our flowers and make a summer collar. Think big 🙂