week11.md

11 TEXTILES AS SCAFFOLD

This week we are working in pairs and I'm partnering up with Ray:) We are interested in making pleats with bio materials.

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION

UNFOLD by Studio Lionne Van Deursen

"Unfold is a material research that explores the versatility of a material created by living microorganisms. The material used in this project is made by a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.

This biofilm composed of bacterial cellulose, becomes a solid material when dried. It’s biodegradable, strong, has a high flexibility and can easily be shaped and folded in any desired shape.

The project explores the possibilities to create relief surfaces and three-dimensional objects with the sheet material. By using a simple folding technique, complex structures can be created. The folded sheet can expand and contract and made into more dynamic objects."

MAKING A MOLD

3D MODELING ON RHINO

I started playing around with the idea of pleats on Rhino. It's important to consider some restrictions of 3D milling. For example, the milling bit has a diameter of 5mm and a height of 3cm, so the gaps between the pleats should be bigger than 5mm and no deeper than 3cm. And it's not possible to mill anything with negative angles since the milling bit only works perpendicularly at this point.

Another thing to consider is that since we are casting bio plastics off of the molds, we are basically working with liquids. So for the bottom mold, I added borders for containing the bio materials better. And the top mold needs to be smaller to fit within the borders.

FINAL MODELS

TOP MOLD by Jiawen Gong on Sketchfab

BOTTOM MOLD by Jiawen Gong on Sketchfab

CREATING TOOLPATHS ON VCARVE

STEP-BY-STEP