10. Textile Scaffold

Research

This week I am still building on trains of thought I have had the last couple of weeks. I'm still thinking a lot about folding, gathering and biomimetic shapes. I hope to see if this week I can use scaffolds to create geometric shapes and pleats that will be stiff enough to hold their shape but might still be able to be folded and actuated later. Similarly, with processes such as CNC milling and shibori I wonder if I can create contoured and organic textures that can be used to create 3D shapes.

I have been thinking about how I can include fabric origami in electronic and kinetic sculptures moving towards my final project, so I think I will be testing ideas this week.

1. Unfold, Studio Lionne van Deursen. This project explores the possibilities to create relief surfaces and three-dimensional objects with biofilm which can expand and contract and be made into more dynamic objects. This is very inspiring for what I have been thinking about.
2. Suzusan. I love the way shibori has been used in this lighting range to make intriguing 3D forms.
3. Issey Miyake, Fall/Winter 1999, I like the use of pleats and scaffolds to create larger than life geometric silhouettes.
4. Amarro Leather Shield, Ethiopia. This shield is made of boiled hippo leather, I'm so enamoured by the ancient practices in many countries and cultures of using boiled leather for armour. I love that the material looks somewhere between man made and natural. .
5. Dragonfruit, Elisa Ligon Design, another nice example of shibori being used to make organic sculptural shapes.
6. hǎidǐlāoyuè, Sophie Mei Birken. A lovely sculptural example of the magic of crystalisation made using the crystals at the bottom of a saltwater container. I'm so excited to try this method .

✙Documentation Workflow✙

This week we had to create:

1. Produce 2 techniques of textiles scaffold and document the process step by step. We can choose from:

   -fabric formwork with casting
   -crystallization
   -wood-textiles composite
   -resin & bioresin -textiles composite
   -leather molding
   -other
   

Assignment Criteria: Week 8

• Document the concept, sketches, references also to artistic and scientific publications

• Produce 2 techniques of textile scaffold choosing from the following:

  -fabric formwork with casting -crystallization -wood-textiles composite -resin & bioresin -textiles composite -leather molding -other

• Document the process including the step-by-step instructions on software, machine, mold making, vaccum forming and textile composites

• Upload your design and fabrication files, including the 3D model and CAM file when possible

• Document at least 2 processes from design to prototyping, fabrication, materials used, document your achievements and unexpected outcomes

• Make a stop motion of your crystal growth or use 3D modeling software to simulate your design (extra credit)

Top Tip!!!

1. Be smart not strong, if you can't release the CNC spindle nut with the spanner because you have weak hands like me, look at the direction of the grooves and aligh your wrenches so you can squeeze them together instead of pull them apart. Then you don't need to humble yourself infront of your muscley friends.

Inspiration!!!

• Stephanie Johnson's pleating work for her final project is beautiful

• Batoul Omar AL-Rashdan, Queen of crystal growing

• Petra Garajova does really nice experiments with crystallising organic material and also making textile scaffolds for felt.

✦CRYSTALLIZATION✦

We started the week by growing Alum (Aluin) Crystals on textile scaffolds.

Crystallization is a natural or artificial process of forming a solid crystalline percipitate out of a solution. We were going to use textiles to scaffold their growth and see what type of material and shape gave us the best crystal formation.

For my textile I prepared some lasercut felt, some twisted pipe cleaners, some wool and some lacey fabric. They all had a bit of a lattice structure which I hoped would encourage growth.

EquiptmentRecipeReflections

- Beaker 
- Stove 
- Pan
- Scales 
- Alum 
- Water 
- String
- Textile 
- Pipe Cleaners
- Food Colouring (optional)

- Prepare your textiles and other materials you wish to grow crystals on. Crystals tned to grow better on surfaces that are a bit hairy and frayed as the crystals will have more surfaces to grab onto. Similarly you want to choose a material that contrasts the colour of the crystals so you can see them clearly.

- Once prepared suspend them in a container. We used string and a wooden stick to suspend our materials just above the bottom of a beaker. Ensure that your material is not touching the sides of the container, the bottom or other materials you are crystallising as they will fuse with crystals!

- We measured that we would need 1.6 litres of solution to submerge our growing materials completely. We used the ratio of 70g : 100ml to calculate how much Alum we would need and measured this with the scales.

- Bring 1.6 litres of water to a high simmer.

- Bit by bit add your Alum into the hot water, stirring to dissolve the Alum.

- When you have reached the point where the water is completely saturated with Alum and it is no longer dissolving, stop adding Alum. With the ratio we had calculated we needed 1.12 kg of Alum but we only required 1 kg.

- Keep stirring until the solution becomes clear and all the Alum is completely dissolved.

- You can also add colouring at this stage if you want your crystals to be colourful. We did a pink batch as well.

- Gently pour your Alum solution into your container and submerge your materials. Ensure that your material doesn't move to touch the sides of the container when the liquid is added.

- Leave your container in a place where it will not be disturbed for 3 hours to a few days or when you are satisfied with the amount of crystal growth. It only took us about 5 hours to grow beautiful crystals and we are so happy with the results.

- For us the solution worked very quickly and well so it is important to watch the crystal growth and make sure you take out your pieces when you are happy. We saw in some areas that too many crystals had formed and started to merge, loosing their definition. Similarly, on pieces where we wanted to maintain gaps and holes for a more interesting structure, these were closed up by crystal growth. 
- The most successful was the piece with the pipe cleaners as we were able to maintain the gaps and also make the shape 3D.

Right to left: Felted Wool, Lasercut Felt, Braided Pipe cleaners, Pipecleaners (pink coloured crystals), Carolina's felt stars, Carolina's Felt Snake, Lace Material.

I was amazed by the speedy and magical results. I love the way the crystal growth followed the form of the pipe cleaners and wonder how I could use this in the future to make more complex lattices and structures.

☍BOILED SHIBORI- HEAT MANIPULATING FABRIC☍

3D Shibori is a technique for adding texture to textiles by exploiting the thermoplastic qualities of some synthetic fabrics.You wrap items into fabric, secure them with thread and set them with heat, and in this way the process leaves a 3D pattern or texture of the object.

Mariko Kusomoto is an absolute master at this technique and creates very delicate and intricate shibori sculptures:

EquiptmentProcessReflections

- Synthetic Fabric (we used mesh fabric with stretch)
- Stove 
- Pan
- String
- Water 
- Objects to form the pattern e.g marbles, beans, nuts and bolts, nails or whatever your imagination desires.

- Cut your textiles into managable pieces. DOn't cut your fabric too small as you will loose a lot of fabric to the wrapping and scrunching around the objects.

- Prepare your objects. You can find any objects to make your pattern. Small repeated objects create nice results. Be mindful if the object may melt when boiled or leave any residue on your fabric.

- Wrap your objects in your fabric and secure very tightly with string. Continue to add objects in any pattern you like. The closer the object, the more dramatic the effect. 
- Boil your tied fabric in a pan of water for 20 minutes.

- Carefully untie and admire your textures!

- The first time we tried this technique we used elastic bands to secure some of the objects. This was a fatal error as the elastic bands expanded with the heat and did not secure the objects at all, leaving no texture. Tying the string very tightly is paramount.

- The stiffer mesh fabric held its texture much better than the mesh that was slightly heavier and stretched in both directions.

-  A closer, more uniform pattern has more striking results. If I wer to do it again I would use a lot more smaller objects and tie them in a close knit pattern.

Here are our results with this technique:

♐︎LEATHER MOULDING♐︎

Myself and Carolina were inspired by Esther Perbandt, Anastasia Pistofidou, Nicolás Olmos Leather Moudling explorations

We decided we wanted to have a go at creating a scaffold to stamp leather with. We followed the documentation of Riley Cox to create laser cut acrylic press moulds.

The laser cutting files for these moulds is available to download here: ¹

EquiptmentProcessReflections

- Leather (natural or synthetic, we were unsure as we used scraps of an old sofa cover)
- Stove and Pan
-Laser Cutter
- 5mm Acrylic

- First we created a vector file in Rhino. We tried to create a simple shape that would look visually impressive when stamped on a peice of leather- a butterfly and stars. We created a box around our design and a 2mm inside offset of the shape. We would cut the offset peice out and also the original shape from the square of acrylic so we would have a two piece mould.

- We cut up pieces of leather that would fit our moulds and leave spare material to clamp down.

- We put the leather in a pan of simmering water for 20 minutes ensuring never to boil the water as this would cause the leather to shrink and go stiff.

- After 20 minutes we took out the softened leather and trapped it inbetween our cut out acrylic pieces before clamping them between two compresses.

- We left this over the weekend and removed the clamp and mould to see the results.

- This process worked really well for us. 
- The main improvments could be made by using thicker acrylic as this creates a deeper imprint and more dramatic effect. 
- We also could have been more prepared for clamping and created a more even pressure with how we secured things together. 
- Finally, a simpler design could have stamped even more effectively. 
- It would be fun to try this with suede as the reverse side of our leather also had a lovely effect.

And here are our results from this process:

✃MOULD DESIGN✃

Asli gave us a crash course in Mould Design for the ShopBot CNC miller. Mouldmaking and casting can be used in a sustainable approach to design. Although the materials we use to make the mould (plastic based foam) are not sustainable, the idea is that we can make one mould that can be reused over and over reduces waste over time. This is particularly true as we were able to use the moulds of past students which have been in the Textile lab for years. The foam is good for casting as it does not deteriorate over time like other mould making materials such as soap, plaster, sand or vaccum forming, therefore our mould can be used for many projects into the future by participants to come. .

Asli also talked us through the basics principles of a mould design:

Considerations for mould making:

• If you are pouring a material into your mould you will need to make a pour spout and air release hole. You will have to make the mould fluid tight.

• Two part moulds need a male and female guide to help the 2 parts align together tightly.

• Consider the orientation of the object you want to make a mould from are there any undercuts you can remove with placement fo the object?

• If you are making a mould for fabric forming, add an offset between two parts of the mould to account for the thickness of the material you are forming.

• The milling bit for our CNC is 5mm, for this reason it is important that all sections of your mould are more than 5mm wide or the milling bit will not be able to get there. Asli created a model in Rhino of the drill bit so we could check our designs. You mjust take into consideration the specifics of your machine and the milling bit you are going to use.

• The maximum depth of the milling bits plunge is 30mm. For this reason the depth of our mould couldn't be more than 30mm otherwise the spindle would damage your mould as it cuts.

ORIGAMI MOULD

I really wanted to create a mould that would cast origami folds into our biocomposites so I could see if I could make anything fold and move.

I brought this crease design to Asli and she began creating the shape in Rhino by extruding a zig zagged curve.

We quickly ran into problems because the milling bit would not be able to fit in the tight angles of the folds. For this reason we had to flatten the bottom of the folds using the Loft command, ensuring the width of each row was more than 5mm for the milling bit to pass.

We used the example 5mm Milling bit that Asli made to test out our mould and check it could move across the mould properly.

The final design once unioned with a extruded rectangle to complete the mould looked like this. We had some concerns about the sharp corners but were otherwise excited to see if this would mill nicely.

You can download the .stl file for this mould here through SketchFab:

moldTutorial by issy2842 on Sketchfab

BUTTERFLY MOULD

Myself and Carolina were concerned about making unnecessary moulds, especially considering that we would make them from foam and that there were plenty of moulds in the textile lab made by previous participants. For this reason we decided to collaborate on our second mould. We quickly decided we wanted to make a one part, butterfly that gradually grew in height towards the end of each wing. We would use this to cast bio-composites on later.

1. We started by creating the outline of our butterfly in Adobe Illustrator and importing it into Rhino.

It was immediately clear that our design was too complicated to make into a mould. There were many sections that were many curves that were less than 5mm wide and the milling bit would not be able to access them. So we got to work simplifying our design using the model milling bit to widen our curves.

Once we were happy with our curve we extruded it in the z direction. We created a domed shape and scaled it to the size of our butterfly placing it where we wanted to split the extruded butterfly. This would help us create the gradual height increase towards the end of the the butterfly wings.

We then used the Boolean Split command to cut the butterfly extrusion along the curve of the dome. We did the same for the inner circles of the wings and finally extruded the base plate.

Here is our final mould design which is downloadable via Sketchfab.

butterfly by issy2842 on Sketchfab

With both our moulds ready and exported as .STL files we were ready to learn how to use the CNC Milling Machine and create a tool path to manafacteur our moulds.

⚑CNC MILLING⚑

Henk gave us a tutorial in 2D and 3D milling with the CNC machine in the FabLab.

The CNC is the most powerful and dangerous machine available to us, so it was important we felt confident using the machine and understood all the steps and safety procedures.

Health and Saftey

• Always watch and be present with the machine when you are working with it.NEVER LEAVE THE MACHINE WHILE ITS RUNNING.Make yourself aware of the emergency stop button and pause button for the programme.
• Never operate the CNC under pressure or stress.
• Ensure you have nothing on you that is loose or dangling that might get caught in the machine. For this reason avoid loose clothing and jewellery when working the CNC and ensure long hair is tied back in a bun.
• Ensure there is nothing obstructing the machine in any of its 3 axes of movement. Keep your work space organised.
• If there are spectators or other people working in the space, ensure they are well away from the machine when it is moving.
• Ensure you know where the fire exstinguisher and fire exit is. Look out for metal parts, screws etc. coming into contact with the milling bit when it is operating. The contact of metal parts at this speed of rotation will cause the parts to get very hot and produce sparks. This in combination with saw dust creates great risk of fire or explosion. It is important you check your material for any metal parts or screws and be mindful that the tool pathway avoids any contact with screws used to secure the material to the bed. If this happens, immediately turn off the machine and the extractor. Release the dust bag and empty the contents.
• Wear safety goggles and earmuffs to protect yourself when using the machine.
• When you are finished it is your responsibility to decide which material can be used again and which materials need to be thrown away.
• Make sure you change the dust extractor bag between use of plastics and wood on the CNC so that waste can be easily recycled.

Here is the Shopbot CNC (Computer numerical control)machine in the Fab Lab! CNC milling is a form of subtractive manufacteuring that uses a cutting tool mounted on a rotating spindle. This spindle can rotate up to 18000 times per minute. It uses g code generated by software Vcarve to understand where to cut. This allows us to manafacteur more complex geometries and the larger bed and z axis allows us to cut much thicker, bigger and varied materials. Like most other machines in the Fab Lab it works on an X,Y Z axis.The computer is oriented so that the user can use the keyboard in alignment with these axes.

♘2D Milling♘

We started with 2D milling. We were cutting out a simple square with rounded corners from 12mm thick piece of plywood.

MAKING YOUR TOOL PATH IN VCARVE PRO

First we needed to open V carve, set up our job and import our file:

1. Open V Carve, this is a software that generate the gcode that instructs the Shopbot.
2. Go to Job Setup. For this you will need to have measured the material you are milling. Input the Job Size (X and Y) which is the width and height of the material in mm.
3. Input Material (Z) which is the ** material thickness**. Use Calipers. To account for inconsistencies in the material, measure thickness on all sides and take a rough average. Accuracy is important as the machine can mill with precision of up to .001mm.
4. Input XY Datum Position or the job origin. We put this at the bottom right corner.
5. Set the units to mm, modelling resolution to HIGH and choose any material appearance for the rendered simulation and press OK.

Next we started creating our first tool path: DRILLING TOOLPATH:

1. Back in 3D view, import your vector into VCarve, the programme allows .dxf or .pdf files. Drag your model to the center of your material.

2. Check for open shapes and duplicates by going to Edit > Select all open/duplicate vectors.

3. We needed to add drilled holes on our material so that we could secure it to the bed with screws. So we clicked DRAW CIRCLE> CHANGE DIAMETER and drew some 5mm circles. We placed these around our design where we wanted to secure the material, ensuring the screws would be more than 5mm away from the profile path.

4. Click on the Tool Path Tab on the top right of the screen. Choose the drilling toolpath operation

5. Then in the drilling toolpath menu we set the Cutting Depths. We input the Start Depth, this is used to tell the program that you want to start machining at the specified depth rather than from the surface. We did not want to do this so we set it to 0mm. Then we input the Cut Depth which is how deep you want to cut into the material. We set this to 2mm

6. We set the Tool to Fab Academy End Mill (5mm) We set the tool info as well. We set the Diameter to 5mm. The Pass Depth is the maximum depth the milling bit will go into the material with every pass. You never want to go deeper than half the length of the milling bit here otherwise the chipload will be too much. We set this to 2mm. The Step over is how far the bit will move over before making the next pass. The larger the step over, the faster the job but the less precise. It doesn't matter so much with 2D milling- we set it at 1mm/20%.. Spindle Speed to 1800 r.p.m . The Feed Rate is the rate the spindle will move from one point to another, we set it to 60. The Plunge Rate is how fast the spindle will move down. We set this to 20. The Tool no. is 1.

7. Calculate, name and Save the profile toolpath. Preview your tool path with the simulation feature to check everything is okay.

Next we started creating our second tool path: 2D PROFILE TOOLPATH:

1. We repeated this process for the Profile toolpath selecting the 2D Profile toolpath operation this time.

The settings were the same except for the cutting depth:

* Cutting Depth: 12mm (how much you want to cut into the material, we want to cut through it). 
* Machine vectors - We want to cut outside the line.

1. Then we added Toolpath Tabs. This is important because we are cutting a square out of a larger piece. As it cuts this means the piece will come loose and move (or fly around). Adding tabs ensures the cut piece remains fixed as we cut. We made tabs of 5mm length and 2mm thickness. You can set the interval distance and move them to where you want on your design by dragging them. Don't put tabs on corners as you will need to saw and sand them off at the end and you won't be able to recover the corner.

2. Calculate, name and save the profile toolpath. Preview your tool path with the simulation feature to check everything is okay.

SETTING UP THE CNC MILLING MACHINE

First we changed the milling bit.

1. Turn off the CNC Machine and take the key out to change the milling bit. The spindle key is connected to the spindle wrench so that you cannot make the mistake of changing the milling bit whilst the spindle is turned on!

There are different types of milling bits and different sizes e.g small flat end milling bit or ball end milling bit. We were using the flat end milling bit which has 2 flutes which turn to cut the material. This bit is good for cutting flat parts where as the ball end is better for detailed contours and curves.

To change the milling bit release the skirt using the butterfly nut at the back of the machine head. Use the spindle wrench and a spanner to loosen the collet. **Turn in opposite directions to release the collet.

Image of Collets from Waag/Fab Lab Amsterdams Shop Bot Documentation.

Choose the correct diameter collet for the milling bit and place it in the nut until you hear a click.Insert the milling bit into the hole in the collet. Make sure the milling bit is put in until the collet stops touching the milling bit on the inside. Make sure to measure the length of the drill bit sticking out from the collet as this is the maximum depth you can mill without the collet damaging your piece. Insert the nut back into the spindle and and screw it in making sure the bit is straight. Tighten again with the spindle wrench and spanner so it is tight. Replace the skirt.

1. Switch on the machine and turn on the spindle with the key. SWITCH THE MACHINE ON BEFORE YOU OPEN SHOPBOT.

2. In Move/Cut Mode you can move the machine manually by pressing the K key, this allows you to to use the right and left arrows and page up/down keys to move the CNC along the X,Y and Z axis. There are end stops on the X and Y axis but be very careful not to change the Z axis as there is no stop. You can pause the machine with the space bar.

1. First we want to home the machine, so the machine looks for its absolute 0,0 point. Click the ZeroXY button.

2. Now we want to zero the X and Y axis to the job origin. Manually move the spindle to the bottom right corner of the material (the same as the XY datum you set in v carve). TAKE A PICTURE OF THE CO_ORDINATES ON THE SCREEN in case you need them again later Then click the [Z]ero tab and choose Zero X and Y axis from the drop down. The Tool is now zeroed in the X and Y axis to the job origin.

3. Now we need to Zero the Z axis on to the sacrifical layer. Take the 3mm metal part and tap it against the tip of the milling bit to test the connection. Check that the output 1 in the Position window turns green. If this doesn't happen remove any dust on the spindle. Move the milling bit down manually until it is 1 or 2 cm above the metal part, ensure it IS above the metal. Press the Zero Z button. The machine will move down until it meets the metal. If the end mill doesn’t go up after zeroing automatically, you have to move it up manually before you start moving or you’ll destroy the machine. Put the gauge back.

1. Clean the sacrificial layer and sand if necessary so the bed is level. Remove the dust and fix your material on the bed.

2. Turn on the spindle with the key. Turn on the extractor in the cupboard at the back of the room with the green button.

3. Set the speed on the white box below the bed- we used 18000 r.p.m.

4. Click File> Load the part file and press start. Keep your finger on the spacebar for a little bit in case something is wrong and you have to pause the milling. We ran the drilling tool path first to make the screw holes.

5. Drill woodie screws into holes. Make sure your material is now flat to the bed.

6. Next we ran the profile toolpath. We didn't have to zero this time as the machine knows where it is. Once it is cut turn off the spindle and the machine.

7. Saw off your tabs and sand the edges until smooth.

☻3D MILLING☻

For this project we were making 2 moulds for biocomposites: An origami mould and a butterfly mould. We were milling them out of a 50mm thick block of foam.

CREATING THE TOOLPATHS

For the 3D milling we need two toolpaths for each: Roughing and Finishing. Roughing creates the basic shape of your model and finishing tidies the milling up. The difference is illustrated in the image below:

1. To do this we go back into V carve and input our Job Set up information for the foam. Our model was going to be 250 x 250 x 50 mm.

1. We clicked File> Import> Import Component and imported our .stl file and centered it to the material.

1. In the toolpath menu choose the Roughing Toolpath operation.. In the Roughing Toolpath Menu select:

   Tool: Fab Academy End Mill (5mm)**. 
   Pass Depth: 5mm
   Stepover: Doesn't matter with roughing (0.5/10%)
   Spindle Speed: 12000 r.p.m
   Feed Rate: 80
   Plunge Rate: 20
   

2. Set the Machine boundary limit to the Model Boundry

3. The Machine Allowance is how much material should be left for finishing. We set this to 1mm as it is foam.

4. The Roughing Strategy decides the direction the milling will move in relation to the X or Y axis. For us this didn't matter as our model moved in both directions.

5. Calculate, name your tool path and save it. Make sure to preview your path in the rendered simulation.

1. For the Finishing Tool Path we used the same settings as the roughing tool path but with the Finishing Toolpath operation. However we set the pass depth to 0 as this was the final pass. We calculated, named and saved this as our finishin tool path. The final simulation looked like this:

MILLING IN 3D

1. To fix the foam to the sacrifical layer we used double sided tape. We applied it to the edges and middle of the foam ensuring no pieces of tape crossed and doubled up their thickness. We pressed hard and ensured it was very stuck to the bed.

2. Turn on the CNC milling machine and the spindle. Home and Zero the machine as we did in the 2D milling, and take a picture of the Job origin co-ordinates.

3. Turn on the extractor and set the speed.

1. Start the roughing tool path watching carefully to ensure the job starts as expected.

2. When the roughing tool path is complete, load the finishing tool path and start it.

3. When the path is complete turn off the spindle, the CNC machine and the extractor.

4. Clean up your model with sand paper and clean up the work station and machine with the dustpan and brush and hoover. Make sure you dispose of any off cuts that are not reusable.

The results were amazing! Both moulds milled way better than I expected and they needed very little cleaning up with sandpaper afterward.

♛BIOCOMPOSITE CASTING♛

Our final adventure in Textile Scaffolds was to cast some biocomposites on our CNC milled moulds.

Myself and Carolina collected all the moulds in the Textile lab and prepared them for casting.

We sanded any unclean edges, put a layer of vaseline and cling film on them so that our biocomposite could be cleanly released from the mould and that the mould wasn't damaged for reuse. On some moulds we decided to add a textile layer for the bio material to cling to and on others we decided to paint and build up our biocomposite on the mould.

Once we had prepared our moulds we decided which biocomposites we wanted to cast on each one. We decided to make a quantity of BIO RESIN, BIO SILLICON and Starch mixture which would be our basic binders for our composites. The step by step process of how to make the bio-plastics can be found on my Biomaterials Assignments page, we simply adapted the ratio of these recipes to suit our desired quantity.

BINDER RECIPES:

Bio ResinBio SilliconStarch Mixture

- 48gr Gelatine
- 8gr Glycerine
- 240ml Water
- Pigment Powder

- 48gr Gelatine
- 48gr Glycerine
- 240ml Water

- 1 tbs Starch
- 2 tbs PVA glue
- 200 ml Water

Then we prepared some jute, tuelle, wool, lycra and cotton strips to be our fillers. We wanted to see the different combinations and produced effects we could make through these experiments.

Our list of biocomposites and moulds are below:

1. Wool and Bio Resin: We cast a sheet of Bio Resin with wool filler in a plastic tray. This would then be heat formed over a cnc milled mould cut with a bubble pattern using a heat gun.

2. Jute and Bio Resin: We pinned jute to a convex oval formed mould and poured bioresin into the shape.

3. Tuelle and Bio Resin: we pinned white tuelle to Asli Aksan and Stephanie Johnson's Truchet tiles mould from last year. We then painted on thin layers of bioresin. About half way to our desired thicknedd weadded another layer of tuelle before painting more layers on top.

4. Lycra and Bio Resin: on our pleated mould we pinned some white lycra material on to the mould and painted layers of bio resin on to it gradually.

5. Starch and Cotton: Using strips of cotton fabric we dipped them into a Starch mixture until they were completely saturated and shaped them around our Butterfly mould, careful to get into all the intricate curves and around the sides.

Once we had cast all our bio-composites we placed them in the dehydrator to accelerate the curing process.

Here is our process and final results! I have included a video of our lycra and bioresin cast on the pleat mould. We were able to get some folding but it wasn't a smooth movement and some parts of the cast would not crease. We could definitely repeat this experiment with biosilicon and apply it more carefully and thinner.

REFLECTIONS

Myself and Carolina tried many, many processes of forming textiles this week. Overall, I think our leather moulding was most successful and also our Crystalisation as the results were beautiful! I can see how I would incorperate their aesthetic into further projects. However, I think in terms of long term value, the processes we learnt in mould making and casting can be applied into many projects especially for me as I plan to explore folding and pleating a lot more in the future. The ability to create one mould and reuse this to produce lots of structured textiles is really appealing and could be upscaled take make something larger and more intricate very quickly.

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1. Leather Moulding Acrylic Mould Laser File ↩