PRINTING

Printing origami shapes

As you can see in the Shibori week, I wanted to draw triangles and print them on fabric. Spoiler: it was not the first time I tried to print on fabric, but this time I only sketched the shapes on it. My idea was to print the shapes and then use them for origami folding.

The first step was to take the fabric parameters: how the shibori folds look, their number, and their dimensions. After collecting this information, I went to Rhino 7 and started to model the pattern. More about how to use this program you can find in my weekly documentation, in the Fabric Academy lessons, and in open-source teaching programs and videos.

double-sided tape I wanted to print it in **TPU**, but our printer or the **TPU** had some problems during printing and it started to print with lumps. It became a big issue, so I chose to try printing with **PLA**, but making it very light and with some flexibility. How to print with a 3D printer you can also find in the [Computational Couture week](https://class.textile-academy.org/2026/lilit-barseghyan/assignments/week06/), where I explain the process in more detail.

Printing with **PLA** was better than I expected. I used a **0.4 mm nozzle**, which is the thinnest layer my printer can make. The module became **light**, **flexible** enough, **strong**, and visually nice.

Using **double-sided tape**, I attached one side **to the PLA** and the other **to the fabric**, and started to experiment with it. I moved the pieces closer and farther from each other and observed how the fabric folds and reacts to the structure. Anyway, the cotton couldn’t remember the pattern very well. This is a problem that still needs to be solved.