10. Textile Scaffold¶
What the week looked like¶
After last week's electronics (that gives me the scares), this week's session was a welcome change. I was really looking forward to getting to do more things by hand rather than on the laptop screen, and for that this week was perfect.
As is obvious from the documentation, my enthusiasm for the assis=gnment was super high, and we tried soo many different things. The agenda was to move fast and experiment a lot!
Takeaways from Global Session¶
Anastasia's session this week was super inspiring to me. Her presentation looked at 7 catergories of Textile Scaffolds or rather sSoft Structures and how to experiment within these categories of: composites, leather molding, fabric formwork, crystallisation, wood + textiles, digital & biological fabrication and cnc milling.
We saw a range of materials being explored with using these methods such as adobe, bio materials, paper, textiles, cork, hemp, leather and natural fibres. The SPECTRUM of explorations of material and techniques blew my mind, and i eventually want to try my hand at the ones i didn't get to explore this week!
There were soo many amazing artists works showcased, but some of the works that piqued my interest were:
Both projects redefined the use of materials, employing them in unconventional ways to create forms that defy expectations based on the materials' inherent properties.
Checklist for the week¶
Personal thoughts and Ideas¶
We had a great start to the week with our local session with Mina who walked us though some more exciting examples of what directions we could take this week.
With my background in Architecture, i was interested in this week's module from the get go! After the local seesion with Mina i was clear that i wanted to work with Casting and Shefali wanted to try Crystallisation. After a quick brainstorming session with all the potential ways we could get our hands dirty and experiment with a LOT of alternatives, we decided to work together again (dream team!!) and try our hands with multiple explorations.
Research & Inspiration¶
Knowing what i wanted to do and focus on this week, i had very clear references for my vision board.
Some of my favorite projects from the references showcased in the Global sesson for Crystallisation were: 1. Dead Sea project by Sigalit Landau 2. Sweat crystallisation by Alice Potts 3. These explorations on unexpected materials by Petra 4. And these swatches on fabrics by Loes
These are the artists whose work i looked at for Formwork, both of whose work i have been follwoing for YEARS and these 2 were the first people that popped in my mind:
- Misha Japanwali is a designer of Pakistani origin who creates artwork that's dedicated to women's rights and freedom. She is famous for her range of sculpted breastplates and her more recent ehibition of cast body curves.
- Boris Ipsum is a modern sculptor who uses concrete as a medium to showcase his unusual approcah to brutalist architecture. He is famous for his very ASMR moulding and casting videos.
Some of my
Softwares, Tools & Materials¶
SOFTWARES:¶
- Autodesk AutoCAD
TOOLS & MATERIALS:¶
- Borax (2kgs)
- Alum (leftover from week 7)
- Water
- Containers (glass and stainless steel)
- Weighing Scale
- Transparent Glue
- Glove
- Straws
- Wires
- Jute rope
- Cloth hanging clips
- Binder clips
- Products to crystallise (fabric, felt, yarn, mesh, other items)
- Lasercutter
- P.O.P. Bandages(Medical grade): 2 rolls
- Plaster of Paris powder: 500gm
- Cling Film: 1 roll
- 5ply Corrugated
- Mixing bowls
- Plastic spoons
- Clay sculpting tools
- Balloon
- Glove
- Fevicol
- Cutter
- Scissor
Work Flow:¶
For this week's assinment, i choose to work on Crystallisation (with Shefali in her mom's now-famous kitchen lab) and Formwork.
Crystallisation¶
Tutorials¶
To begin with, we refered to Youtube videos to get a general idea of what the process involved. We refered to this video of making borax crystals at home, this video of Borax on Flower and also this one about growing Alum crystals
Setup¶
- Prepare the stuff that is to be crystallised
- We seggregated them based on which ones we wanted to test with Borax and ones we wanted to test with Alum.
- Setup glass jars that could accomodate them, without the objects being too close to each other.
- Once the solution is poured, the containers can't be moved, so setup the final resting place for the containers before starting the process.
We first worked with Borax and then Alum.
Explorations with Borax¶
We started with mixing 1:1 ratio of Borax to water. But eventually based on the quantity of objects we wanted to immerse, we ended up using the entire 2Kg bag.
To make Borax solution, you need to keep the container with water on the stove and slowly keep adding the borax, while continuously stirring. So, we kept working in smaller batches of 800gm Borax in 800ml Water. You also need to ensure that the powder doesn't settle down at the bottom.
Once the borax solution is hot and ready, pour the liquid into the seggregated containers and immerse the object. The closer the onject is to the container floor, the higher and denser the crystal formation. It is important to ensure that the objects are NOT touching the surface of the container, or else the crystals formed will merge the object and surface to each other.
We the listed wires, ropes, straws and clips to create DIY suspension stands for all the objects. The heavier objects were easier to dunk, but the lighter objects like fabric needed better manuvering to keep it pushed inside. This buouyant force was something we had not calculated for, nor seen being tackled in any of the refernce videos we saw.
Shefali found a hack online to get more denser crystals, and we chose to try it with the fake roses. We sprayed transparent glue on the surface and sprinkled Borax powder over it. This is supposed to attract more crystal formation, and we thought the complex petal formations could use this extra help!
Once the liquid is poured, the entire setup cannot be moved. So we organised the Borax filled containers along Shfali's mom's kitchen counter and let them rest.
After 12 Hours we removed the pieces and dunked out the water, although the watercan be reheated and re-used for crystallisation.
And this is how the pieces turned out..
Crystals on extra felt from past exercises
Explorations with Alum¶
We had 2 types of alum on hand: alum rocks that we crushed in a food processor (do NOT reccomend of you love your equipment) and store bought alum powder.
We followed the same ratio of 1:1 alum to water and made separate batches for both. This was followed by the gradual addition of alum in boiling water. However, because of our specific batch of alum, we found impurities floating on the water surface and didn't want those to affect the crystallisation, so we strained it.
Just like with the borax solution, once the strained hot alum solution was ready, we poured it into the seggregated containers and immersed the pieces shortlisted.
And similar to crystallising with Borax, we had to ensure that we created DIY solutions for keeping the pieces well immersed and not touching the floor or the walls of the containers.
We the let them rest for 48 hours! Yes it took WAYYYY longer to form crystals with Alum than with Borax.
This is how they came out....
Formwork¶
I was better prepared for this exploration than crystalisation, which was more kitchen based! Seeing the inspirational images during the global session, I immediately knew i wanted us to play with Plaster of Paris. Having used this material previously in its different forms a powder and as bandages, i knew it would dry rather qucikly despite the current weather in Mumbai; which was extremely important in-order to finsh this exercise on time!!
POP Pour Casting in Glove¶
POP creates a LOT of mess, and so before we got down to it, we first had to setup our workspace...
My first attempt was a Pour Casting. And continuing my obsession with hands, i decided to pour cast a glove.
I mixed the POP powder with water in a 1:1 ratio in a mixing bowl. It is always better to start with small quantities of powder to begin with, and then slowly adding more while stirring continuously, in-order to ensure avoiding lump formations.
Once the mixture was ready, i poured it into the medical glove & sealed it, but i still had some mixture leftover. So i found a waste plastic bag lying around and poured the remainder of the contents in it, just for fun, to see how it would shape up.
After i checked on it the next day, there was a pile of water that had risen to the surface of both the glove and the waste bag. However, another 6 hours later, the water still remained and i realised that my mixing ratio was wrong for the specific POP powder!
Since this POP powder is super cheap and a local packet, there weren't any instructions on the ratio. But for next time, i would try a 2:1 ratio of POP powder to water.
We sadly had to discard the glove and the plastic bag because they started leaking water and didn't even set.
POP Bandage Casting on Balloon¶
My second attempt was something i was more sure of; using POP bandages; the ones that are used by doctors for bandaging fractures. Seeing my pervious attempt fail, i wanted to first do a simple test of Bandage Casting a balloon.
POP bandages are way easier to use than POP powder.
Once i had inflated the balloon, all i had to do was cut strips of the POP bandage, quickly dip it in a tub of water and apply on the surface of the balloon. A good workflow here is to first pre-cut strips of the POP and keep them ready, and then just quickly dip and apply them in one go.
As i was laying the bandages, they started drying really quickly and this for me was a reassurance to use the POP bandages for my final attempt for the assignment.
After all the pieces were applied, i let the cast stay overnight for it to dry out completely. The next evening i burst the balloon and was left with the shell.
The shell looked pretty sturdy and curiosity got the best of me and in the moment, i decided to cut up the shell to see how it had dried and if i could play around with these cast POP bandage pieces.
POP Bandage Casting on Terrain¶
For my third attempt and my FINAL piece, i had a vision of casting a curvilinear surface and i decided to cast a Terrain.
Making the Mould¶
I quickly whipped up an on-the spot design for a terrain model that would fit in 30cm x 30cm square, and went about creating a lasercut drawing for this.
Then i quickly cut the pieces on a 5ply corrugated on our FabLab Lasercutter, separated them and stacked them to ensure all pieces were there, before i started gluing the pieces together.
As i was doing this part of the assignment at work, sticking the pieces took a bit longer than expected, but this is how it looked like..
Preparing for Casting¶
Now that the pieces were stuck, now began the MOST ARDUOUS task of Preparing this terrain for being cast.
Since the model is effectively made of brown paper, i could not apply the wet POP strips to it. Apart from the horrible smell and the fungus that could grow in it, i would not be able to pull off the cast as it would get stuck to the model.
A usual go-to for POP prep on human skin is vasaline, but that wouldn't work here cos the paper would absorb it. Another direction was to coat the entire layer with Fevicol and then apply the POP bandages. However a quick test on waste corrugated later, i realised that this makes the POP stick to the brown paper even more strongly than before.
As much as i wanted to avoid using plastic, the only available option was to seal the surface with Cling film. On the first attempt when i tried to put the cling film on the model, it wouldn't stay in place. So finally, i figured that when i apply a coat of Fevicol to the brown paper terrain and then put cling film on it, it stays in its position relatively longer.
This was very laborious and took an unexpected number of hours to finish. But once it was done, it looked absolutely unreal...
Applying POP Bandage¶
Having figured out a quick workflow with the pre-cutting the bandages into strips, i set off first creating a chunk of strips in one go. Once i was happy with the quanity, i proceeded to dip and cast. But before that, i setup my workspace and put on a pair of gloves!
I continued the process of dip and apply till the entire Terrain mould was covered.
One of the techniques i used to maintain all of its curves and edges, was to continuously keep smoothing the surface with my hands nad using the Clay sculpting tools.
I let this dry for 24 hours
DeMoulding¶
After 24 hours, the POP bandage cast was stuck to the Terrain mould like crazy. And since POP is brittle when dry, i was worried the cast would be very delicate.
DeMoulding was the second most time consuming task. I flipped the model upside down, and slowly & steadily chiped away at the 5 ply corrugated.
A few hours later and this was definitely worth the wait! Unlike my assumption of fragility, the final piece was quie sturdy and flexible despite being extremely lightweight.
And this is what the piece looks like from top...
And this is what the piece looks like on the inner side...
Learnings¶
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Crystallisation: The key is to be ready with the setup and plan ahead. Everything else is super straightforward. And the quality of crystals depends on the quality of water, so the adhesion of the crystals in re-cycled re-heated borax water is different to the original first-time heated borax water.
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Formwork: Always test before going big. This saved me a lot this week. Knowing that the POP powder was wrongly mixed and that i didn't create my core experiment to be that. And that the POP bandages are a LOT more pliable than the seem, and are amazing for sculpting.
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Overall being patient with the materials and the process was something that held true this week as well.
Fabrication Files¶
People to thank for this week¶
Shefali's Mom: for being the kindest for letting us trash her beautiful kitchen once again