10. Open Source Hardware - From Fibers to Fabric¶
Research & Ideation¶
The challenge this week was searching and finding a machine to build. The theme is vast, and Sara Diaz Rodrigues gave us many tips to follow. At the beginning, I would like to build a knit machine, such as the «kiniterate» or a Jacquard loom, but as they are very complex for now, I decided to make one easier.
weekly assignment
Check out the weekly assignment here or login to your NuEval progress and evaluation page.
about other resources...
Other resource here to build a shredder for discarded textile...
or [here] https://grabcad.com/library/das-mini-shredder-1
get inspired!
Check out to get inspired
Add your fav alumni's pages as references
References & Inspiration¶
"Textiles in general involve a large cycle from the production of fibres to the disposal of textile products, which nowadays, in accordance with Sustainable Development objectives, are rethought to be reused or recycled. Although the industrial development of machines has witnessed a huge increase in the production of different fabrics, this does not mean that they have made them richer but rather faster. Therefore, the design of fabrics is always dependent on the way the threads are crossed (between warps and wefts), whether in manual weaving or industrial weaving, a process that has changed around the world."
- Traditional portuguese textiles techniques
In Portugal we have some traditional techniques of tapestry and embroideries that comes from foreign people that, with additional decorative weft threads, become different from the base structure, and with the change of material, also become different from the original ones.
- Portalegre Tapestry
In the tapestry of Portalegre, they use a kind of big vertical loom where more than two weavers can work at the same time.
While doing my research, I found a very interesting video that tells the story of a man who, after retiring, started making rope-powered looms. His work is compared to the watchmaking art.
Tools&Materials¶
- [Photoshop] for editing images
- [LightBurn] for working the files for Lasercutter
- [Lasercutter]for printing chipboardwood and acrylic
- chipboardwood 60cm x 40cm
- acrylic 20cm x 40cm
- threaded rods
- wood block
- drill machine
- rodnuts
Looms¶
The classification of the manual weaving looms was precisely done according to the position of the warp, as in a horizontal or vertical way, but nowadays there are so many types that people are only concerned with whether they have “shafts with heddles” or not.
In manual projects where the plain structures (without knots as in tapestries) can be more intricate, the looms have more than two “shafts” (Dobby loom). Here, the weaver may control the shafts and create different repetitive structures beyond the “taffeta weave," such as twills, cords, herringbone patterns, etc.
The jacquard loom has other ways to work, and besides being more complex (each heddle can go up and go down separately), it is the one with the greatest capacity for creating designs and patterns such as tapestry handweaving looms.
Loom 1 Process¶
After I realised that there was a short loom in Fablab Lisboa, the “Etelbert loom,” I talked to its project manager, Alexandre Cardoso, to get the file for printing on the cutting laser. The file was made to cover an entire piece of chipboard wood, 5mm wide. Besides, it is planned to build in only one material. I print the shaft (rigid-heddle) and the shuttle in acrylic 5mm wide to feel the difference between both materials.
This type of loom is named “rigid-heddle” because the “shaft with heddle” is rigid and is also managed as a “reed” that can comb the weft threads.
- Etelbert Loom
Steps¶
I took the file and worked in Lightburn to send the files (in cardboard with 15.0 m/sec speed and 35.00 max power and acrylic with 12.0 m/sec speed and 65.00 max power) for laser cutting.
After I separated all the pieces and started building the Etelbert loom, I quickly noticed that I was spending a lot of time on it.
- Etelbert Loom Process
Loom 2 Process¶
In the meantime, while I was building the Etelbert loom, I started thinking about a device where the weaver could work simultaneously with warp and weft yarns, holding them in threaded rods (drawings*). I even thought about adding a "threaded rod" to the Etelbert loom, but then I decided to make another Loom so that the distance between all the threads I would use (warp and weft) could have the same distance.
Steps¶
To put this project into practice, I took a wasted wood block and asked for someone to cut it in four (for each corner) and make holes in the middle. A colleague of mine assisted me in doing it.
- Loom 2 Process
¶
In this way, we can adjust the dimensions of the rods as well as the length of the cloth that will be woven.