10. Textile Scaffold¶

Research¶

Check out and research alumni pages to betetr understand how to document and get inspired

* Cnc material archive - [Fatemeh Mollaie - FabLab Armenia](https://class.textile-academy.org/2025/fatemeh-mollaie/assignments/week10/)

* Digital crafts - [Shahed Jamhour - CPF Makerspace](https://class.textile-academy.org/2024/shahed-jamhour/assignments/week09/)

* CNC mold - [Zahia Albakri - CPF Makerspace](https://class.textile-academy.org/2024/zahia-albakri/Projects/week09/)

* Crystallisation exploration - [Viviane Labelle - EchoFab](https://class.textile-academy.org/2024/viviane-labelle/assignments/week09/)

* Moulds - [Lisa Boulton](https://class.textile-academy.org/2023/lisa-boulton/assignments/week09/)

* Millinery - [Betiana Pavon](http://class.textile-academy.org/2019/betiana.pavon/assignments/week06/)


_Add your fav alumni's pages as references_

References & Inspiration¶

Riverbed by Rebecca Cross a hand dyed silk shibori hanging textile. The shaope are obtained by using river rocks.
Fabrick made by the students at the Bartlett School of Architecture who created a composite material using felt and resin that can be stitched together to create tubular furniture.
Mycelium Tectonics research thesis by Gianluca Tabellini about mycelia and architecture. It investigates how mycelium could be used as a construction material
MycoKnit by Somfoundation in which the knit is used as a growing base for mycelium materials.
GROWN FROM ROOT a project by Rootfull in collabiration with Rachel Friere Studio. The black dress is a testament to the future of sustainable fashion. Its journey began as grass seed, grown directly onto silk and then carefully dyed using natural gallnuts.

Overview material research outcomes¶

example from the documentation of Loes Bogers TextileLab Amsterdam 2019-20


Biofoam	Gelatin foil	Bioresin	Biosilicone
Starch Rubber	Biolinoleum	Alginate net	Alginate foil
Alginate string	Agar foil	Bio composite	Reused PLA

Tools¶

Pots
Stove
Mixing tools
Water
Alum
Fabrics
Threads
Yarns
Foam
Rhino
CnC milling machine
Alginate
Agar Agar
Latex
Bamboo leaves

Cristalization¶

Prepare a highly concentrated solution with alum (70%), and then heat it to dissolve more alum. You can mix it with food colour or food colour

RecipeToolsSteps

* 4,5l water
* 3000 gr alum
* The piece you want to cristalize

* Pot
* Stove
* Wisk
* Vinegar (for cleaning)

Clean your tools. The presence of impurities can impact crystallization, influencing nucleation, growth, and crystal quality.
Bring water to boil and dissolve the alum in it. You need to wisk for a while.
Prepare your containers. The pieces to cristalize should be in the middle of your jar, you can hang them using threads and sticks and some weights to keep the staight if you used light materials like fabric, yarn or thread.
Once the alum is dissolved, pour you solution in your prepared jar. Make sure here that your pieces are not touching each others.

Shibori¶

I used a piece of organza and nuts to create my shapes. I tighten my fabric around the nuts in six points and used some thread to keep it in shape.

RecipeToolsSteps

* water

* Pot
* Stove
* Thread

Bring water to simmering temperature
Immerse your piece and let it in for 20-25 mins
Take it out and let it cool down

Rhino¶

Left: a glyph from the Fe\u2082O\u2083 Glyphs typeface, created by designer Craig Ward and experimental photographer/biochemist Linden Gledhill.
Centre: a ceramic sculpture created by artist Robert Fathauer, inspired by a fractal curve and organic growth.
Right: a lichen, Xanthoria Parietina.

Me and Johanna prepared a mold together. Bering mainly inspired by the centre image, we used its outline to create a pattern through the differential growth techinique. Aslı helped us with Grasshopper since we encountered some problems with the size of our mold. If too small, it would be hard to mill. Below you can see our Grasshopper code.¹

Mold - Textile as Scaffolding - Fabricademy by Alessia Talò on Sketchfab

CNC Milling Machine¶

A CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machine, or CNC mill, is a computerized controlled machine that features drilling and cutting tools for completing the milling process. Milling is a manufacturing method using a rotating cylindrical cutting tool to remove materials from the workpiece and create a wide collection of CNC milled parts with different shapes, slots, holes, and dimensions. (What Is a CNC Milling Machine & How Does It Work | Types of CNC Milling Machines, 2019)

Credit: Maddie Olsen

Before using the CNC milling machine you need to follow a safety instruciton and make your own documentation. Here's mine!

Safety Measures¶

Tie your hair, don't wear jewelery or loose clothes
Never leave the machine while it's running
Don't put your hands on the support of the bridge
Check the surroundings of the machine: no materials should be in the way of the bridge when it moves
Clean the sacrificial layer of the machine (from dust or objects)
Check that all the screws are tight
When you stop the machine, always stop the spindle too. (spindle still rotating -> friction -> fire)
Emergency button, you the stop button is something goes wrong
The fire extinguisher is placed close to the machine. Don't esitate to use it if you see fire.
It is important to wear proteciton as goggles and earmuffs, but it is also true that it is important to listen to the machine in case you ear weird or unusual noises.

Parts¶

When putting the milling bit inside the collet, screw it tight and make sure that you have 1 cm of your bit inside it (it might come off when the spindle is spinning)
The sacrificial layer

Start the machine¶

Credit: Waag Amsterdam

The switch for the dust collector can be found in the back of the room, the lamp turns green when it’s on. Press the red button on the front of the machine to turn on the dust collector and use the knob to increase or decrease the power.

Then turn on the spindle by turning the key in the keyhole next to the on/off switch of the Shopbot. It is attached to the wrench, so you can make sure that you have tighten the collet before starting the spindle

Softwares¶

We use two softwarese VCarve Pro, which prepares your stl files for the milling machine, and ShopBot, which operates the machine and reads the crv files

VCarve Pro¶

Credit: Waag Amsterdam

{ width=500 align=left}

Import and save your file to the computer (Fabri > 2025/2026)
Open a New File
In the Job Set Up you need the specify the characteristics of your materials (x,y and z). Keep in mind the orientaiton of the machine!

Import -> Import Component/3D model
We are wotking in two parts; roughing toolpath and finishing toolpath
Modeling resolution: rendering, not so important
Press OK

Milling bits¶

Ball nose mills	End mills
![]used for milling contoured surfaces	Used for flat surfaces
![]	We generally use this

Roughening Toolpath¶

Measure milling bit width and how much it sticks out from the
- diametre: 5mm
- type: end mill
- step depth: 5mm
- stepover: 90% -> 4.5mm (Distance between each pass of the machine tool head. The larger the step over, the faster the job but the less precise. 100% step over is no overlap. 50% is half overlap. The lower the step over, the smoother the surface.)
- spinning spee:_ low (for foam). (How many rotations per minute the mill makes. 18000 for wood is the standard & maximum speed. Changing this value here is only for your own information; you have to set this manually on the machine)
- feed rate: 90% (How fast the mill tool head moves. Use 50 - 60 mm for wood with a 2 flute end mill. When you go slower the traces will be more neat, but the milling will also take longer)
- plunge rate: 20 (Speed of going down, you can keep this on 20)
- run simulation

Finishing Toolpath¶

What changes:
- Stepover: 0.5 mm (10%)
- Area machine strategy: offset

Save your two files!

ShopBot¶

- K command -> opens keypad, you can move the spindle out of the way - Fix your material to the surface. For foam you can use double sided tape, for wood you need to use screws. - If you have not attached your material correctly you'll hear a vibration.

Starting the job¶

Kepp you hand on the space bar, pause button, in case the spindle goes in a direciton that you didn't expect.
Z leveling -> use the metal plate
Send machine to Home Position
Set Job Home -> move spindle to the left corner of your material

Agar Agar¶

Johanna and I decided to experiment with another Agar Agar recipe.

RecipeToolsSteps

* 400 ml water
* 8 g Agar
* 24 g glycerin

* Pot
* Stove
* Wisk
* Organza
* Mold
* Vaseline
* Cling film

Mix everything in a pot until dissolved and let it cook for about 20 mins
Prepare your mold: we applied some vaseline on the cling film so it would stick to the mold and ton move around. In this way, you can protect your mold and use it again
We poured some agar solution on the bottom, placed the organza on top and poured some more on the top
Let it dry!

The result

Alginate¶

We had a lot of alginate left from the Soft Robotics week that Amber and Tajah prepared.

Mycelium¶

Latex¶

I prepared a mould that Aslı made when she was a student at Fabricademy. I prepared the mold the same way as discribed above with

ToolsSteps

* Brush
* Mold
* Vaseline
* Cling film
* Strings

Prepare your mold: we applied some vaseline on the cling film so it would stick to the mold and ton move around. In this way, you can protect your mold and use it again
Using a brush, apply the the latex evenly on the surface.
While the latex is still fresh, place your strings as desired. Cover them with some more latex so they'll be secured.
Let it dry!

In the weekend I worked on some crochet pieces. One made by me and one from the thrift store. The steps are the same as above

$Crochet Latex$

Cornstarch¶

At home I tried two other recipes. One with cornstarch which cracked a lot. I'm not sure what went wrong in the process.

RecipeToolsSteps

* 1 tbl cornstartch
* 1 pst glycerin
* 1 tsp vinegar
* 4 tbl water
* A pinch of turmeric for colour

* Pot
* Stove
* Spatula
* Fabric
* Aluminium foil
* Embroidery loops

Mix everything in a pot until combined.
Turn on stove to low/medium heat.
Stir regularly to avoid clumping
Once the mixture is easily scoopable, turn off the heat.
Stir a few more times, then scoop the mixture onto an aluminum foil.
Over the next 15 minutes, the plastic will begin to harden but it needs to sit for several hours before being completly set.

The round one was the first attempt and I poured quite a lot in an embroidery loop with my fabric. It resulted in a thicker layer which created bigger cracks.

The rectangular one was my seconf attempt and I poured a thinner layer, resulting in smaller cracks and it is better attached to the fabric

Guar Gum¶

On Ala' Janbek's website I've found a link to the Materiom website for a recipe to make Guar Gum Bioplastic that I actually used a couple of yeara ago.

I defenitly need a dehydrator. It will take ages to dry and I'm not sure of the outcome.

Hands from week 2!¶

I had to cut part of the material in order to take it out from the hand.

I had to break the clay to remove the hand. What can I do with these pieces?

Biomaterials Recipes¶

I've found a few recipes online that I'd like to try during the winter vacation. Below you can find a colleciton fo them and the website where I've found them!

*** change the tab look!!!

Material name	recipe	plastifier	filler	emulsifier
Cornstarch bioplastic	1tbl cornstartch	1 pst glycerin
Starch Mango Bioleather	potato starch 10 gr	1 riped mango (rich in sugars)	mango fibrous material
Conductive Agar
bio-rainbow	biokelp powder 12 gr	glycerol 100 ml	rainbow dust 1 kg	green soap a drop

RESULTS¶

Two ways of showcasing and comparing results with images below

On the left an image of a sample made by xxx with xxx. The dye is more xxx. On the right, an image of a sample made by xxx with xxx and xxx. Here the dye is more xxx.

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Recipes¶

Grasshopper file ↩

Table of Contents

10. Textile Scaffold¶

Research¶

References & Inspiration¶

Overview material research outcomes¶

Tools¶

Cristalization¶

Shibori¶

Rhino¶

CNC Milling Machine¶

Safety Measures¶

Parts¶

Start the machine¶

Softwares¶

VCarve Pro¶

Milling bits¶

Roughening Toolpath¶

Finishing Toolpath¶

ShopBot¶

Starting the job¶

Agar Agar¶

Alginate¶

Mycelium¶

Latex¶

Cornstarch¶

Guar Gum¶

Hands from week 2!¶

Biomaterials Recipes¶

RESULTS¶

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Recipes¶