10. Textile Scaffold¶

This week was very exciting for me because everything looked very interesting from the weekly assignment talk, and I was very excited to learn how we could give shape, support, structure, and volume to an object or garment. In addition to wanting to learn new tools that I didn't know how to use, such as the CNC router.

Main challenges:

Achieving a crystallization technique on different objects and comparing the results.
Being able to use manufacturing tools such as a CNC router to create a mold.

Research¶

Textile scaffolding can be understood as structures created from woven, knitted, or non-woven textile materials and other techniques to give volume and structure to an object. It can be based on a concept that is often used in medical applications, such as tissue engineering.

Scaffolds in tissue engineering

Scaffolds can be defined as three-dimensional structures made from natural or synthetic biomaterials that provide physical support for cell growth. These scaffolds can be inert, acting solely as passive support, or play an active role in scaffold biology, releasing chemical signals that stimulate and regulate key processes such as cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation.

The main characteristics of these are:

Structural support
Mechanical properties
Bioactive signals
Reservoir of growth factors

With these terms, we can understand how it is possible to scale them up and apply their scope to other fields such as fashion, design, architecture, digital manufacturing, among others, using an infinite possibility of materials and techniques since they can be manufactured with materials such as natural fibers, synthetic polymers, or biopolymers, in addition to being appreciated for their porosity, resistance, and even biodegradability, which allows for ecological and innovative uses in all sectors.

Fashion and design Area

In fashion and design, we can use techniques such as fabric formwork with casting, crystallization, wood-textile composites, resin and bioresin textile composites, leather molding, among others. For this assignment, we will focus on crystallization and leather molding.

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get inspired!

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

Cnc material archive - Fatemeh Mollaie - FabLab Armenia
Digital crafts - Shahed Jamhour - CPF Makerspace
CNC mold - Zahia Albakri - CPF Makerspace
Crystallisation exploration - Viviane Labelle - EchoFab
Moulds - Lisa Boulton
Millinery - Betiana Pavon

Add your fav alumni's pages as references

References & Inspiration¶

Kofta is a studio where all of its collections are created through molding to produce pieces with realistic reliefs, such as the human body or everyday objects.

Kofta Studio

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A post shared by kofta (@koftastudio)

Christina Avagyan

For the crystallization technique, I used Ahinoa's work as a reference, as I was able to see the different growth reactions of crystals with different components, such as alum, borax, and sulfate, creating different crystal shapes and surfaces. So, I also experimented with some different ones and changes in the recipes to see what would happen.

Ainhoa Cadarso

Textile Scaffold assignment-crystallization

Tools¶

Process and workflow¶

For crystallization, we used cupric acid and borax pentahydrate as a first attempt; however, the borax was difficult to handle as it solidified very quickly.

Crystallization Copper sulfate¶

Ingredients & Recipes for Cooper crystallization¶

Prepare this recipe ¹ by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:

=== "ingredients"

    * 35 gr Copper sulfate
    * 100 ml Distilled water

=== "tools"

    * Stove
    * Scale
    * Stirrers
    * Beaker

Crystallization Borax¶

Borax Pentahydrate

For the second attempt, I decided to use Borax decahydrate. This one, which was easier to handle and took longer to solidify and crystallize.

Second try with Borax decahydrate

Ingredients & Recipes for Borax pentahydrate¶

Prepare this recipe ² by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:

=== "ingredients"

    * 65 gr Borax pentahydrate 
    * 100 ml distilled water

=== "tools"

    * Stove
    * Scale
    * Stirrers
    * Beaker

Ingredients & Recipes for Borax decahydrate¶

Prepare this recipe ³ by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:

=== "ingredients"

    * 250 gr Borax decahydrate
    * 1 Lt water

=== "tools"

    * Spoon
    * Stove
    * Bowls
    * Pipe cleaner
    * Thread
    * Measuring cup

LEATHER MOLDING¶

My modeling skills are not yet the best, but I wanted to use the shape of a human heart to make my mold for CNC cutting to make a bag as my sketch.

, so I used a previously molded human heartas a base and adapted it to what I was looking for, cutting it in half and widening the arteries a little more, since when I cut it in half, they were lost.

VCarve for CNC¶

Once I have the mold and I exported it as STL, I went to VCarve program and imported the file to start with the process of making my file for CNC Router.

Adjust the measurements of the material

Roughing

Finishing

Generate G-Code, two separate files, one for roughing trajectory and another for finishing trajectory

Material Preparation¶

First, I cut two MDF boards to make my mold, since the thickness must be double for the figure to be extruded. So, I glued one on top of the other and let it dry with some presses to apply pressure until it was firm and ready.

CNC ROUTER¶

For the router, my instructor Raúl first explained everything relevant to me and how the machine worked so that I could familiarize myself with it and understand more about how to operate it.

I could recognize the main components, such as the control panel, the head where the tools are placed, the vacuum table or work area, among others.