6. Computational Couture¶
Research & Inspiration¶
This week I was inspired by Julia Kroener's ideation process for sourcing ideas from natural forms and translating them into 3D textures. I started the week on Pinterest getting inspired by the different textures I was interested in studying/replicating.
I was also Julia Kroener's inspired by the research and development process behind the modular items in the ARID collection. I had never really considered exploring closure systens using 3D printing.
Being a costume designer, I was really drawn to Kadian Gosler's exploration of historic laces in her lingerie collections. I really appreciated that she was achieving these looks with really accessible software and 3D printers.
In doing some additional research on 3D lace printing I cam across Brigette Kock's work on her Variable Seams channel. I later realized she was a Fabricademy alum when trying to find videos on the Computational Couture channel!
I looked at the following alumni pages to better understand the assignment expectations and documentation strategies:
Tools & References¶
A significant challenge for me this week was the inability to experiement with fabrics and filament types with the printers in our Architecure department. Taking the advice from Julia in the Q & A session, I decided to purchase a basic machine that we can use for protoyping on fabric in our Textile Lab.
I used this 3D Printer Comparison from Kaizen 3D Prints to determine what would be best for my budget/needs. I landed on the Bambu A1 Combo because I wanted to use more than one color and I thought an open printer would allow for printing on larger fabric surfaces. The set up was fairly straight forward.
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Bambu Studio I found the tutorial on 3D Revolution to be helpful in learning the basics of Bambu Studio and preparing a file for print.
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Bambu Lab PLA Filament (Red, Black, Glow Blue, Jade White)
Process and workflow¶
My 3D modeling skills are still pretty basic. Most of this week was spent setting up and getting to know the 3D printer, testing swatches, and testing out closures. I am currently a bit limited with filament colors and understanding how to embed them into the 3D files, but hope to explore that further in the coming weeks.
Fabric Test¶
After setting up my printer, I wanted to test my understanding of how to print on fabric. I used a file sourced via Bambu Studio. I paused the printer after one layer and secure a layer of netting before continuing the print.
Exploring Patterns¶
After a successful print onto netting, I worked toward creating patterns is a variety of softwares. After struggling with the Blender and Grasshopper tutorials, I decided to move forward with simpler software. In researching different patterns structures that exist in nature, I came across auxetic structures and found several that I felt confident I could replicate for this week's assignment. I created the initial 3x4 triangle motif in Inkscape and imported the svg file into Tinkercad. I expanded the motif in Tinkercade to 9x12 and played around with different thicknesses between 3-5mm. I printed the sample on a really light weight silk chiffon. I think this could be a really usefull technique for creating beading effects on period garments and evening wear. If I were to do this again on a similar fabric, I would keep the printing thickness between 1-3 mm.
Closure Experiments¶
I also explored different options for using 3D printing to connect materials. A button and buttonhole were manageable shapes that I could create in Tinkercad. The PLA is probably not the ideal filament type - there was no give in the button hole and the lack of support material created a stringy effect on the underside of the button. It was a useful test in that I was able to determine how big of a hole I needed in the mesh for the button. I am hoping to do some additional tests once I know more about filament options and support materials.
Modular Garment¶
Building off the closure experiments, I revisited the modular garment design that I created for Week 2: Circular Open Source Fashion. Using the dimentions from my CLO3D Pattern, I created pattern shapes in Tinkercad. I shrunk down the button proportions to a 5mm rivet that I set at 20mm intervals along the edges of the connecting pattern pieces. Once printed, I snipped a single bit of mesh to allow for the rivet to pass through the layered fabric. I was impressed at how much stronger the connection was that the modular garment despite the delicate materials. If I do this technique again, I would keep the wider base at the bottom of the rivet to give it more strength when removing it from the heating plate.
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