Once the module is drawn on paper, we pass it to digital using the rinhoceros. The drawing required curves and tangents to the inner circle, so draw after generating all the support curves you must clean the figure with the command "trim"
Finally I got the final figure, removing one of the side legs and adding the holes of the module
In this drawing you can see the final module, after having modified the initial connectors of the lines by circles.
In illustrator I organize the pieces with a somewhat higher distance than normal, since the laser tends to melt the neoprene at the edges, losing material. The settings in illustrator for cutting again are 0.07pt and red color.
I have tried several settings for the laser, but they have not been very successful, I used 3speed 100 power and 1000f but even with that laser power I was not cutting properly. Finally I used the settings for established for leader by trotec, raising the power to 70.
We had problems cutting this week, since the machine only cuts in the upper left corner, while we solve the problem and due to the time I had to cut 16 modules at the same time so as not to lose material.
My original idea was to find a module that could generate a sphere or toroid, to start the research on the beads. So look for the most basic way to achieve it, dividing the wait into four parts and adding the hooks to connect them. The result was very satisfactory, now I could start to compose patterns with these textile beads.
Once I got the pattern I needed I started to explore the different variations I could have, increasing or decreasing the size, generating half sphere, amplifying the connections etc ..
The size of the textile bead can be modified without major problems when making the connections. With this variation you can generate degradations in the general pattern.
The second option was to create half of the sphere, being able to generate changes in the size of this and generating degradations of depth and height. The sphere would be inserted in a second module, and depending on the cuts if they are more closed or open the sphere will change shape as well.
The next step has been to create a double sphere, connecting two spheres between them. In this process appeared a new unexpected form, the flower. In the assembly process you can press the upper part of the sphere giving a new inverted shape as you can see in the image.
I decided that this flower had importance in the final composition, so I started working with the colors. The textiles that I have are black and white, therefore, I made my first experience with a natural dye with purple corn, to be able to give a more realistic touch to the flower, painting it as if it were watercolor with this purple dye.
On the other hand I also used the cotton fabric I was using to make a new flower with another material and compare the results. The intention is to use natural tissue and natural dye in the following prototype of the composition with this module.
The shapes continue to appear depending on the assembly of the same module, in this case the composition in black also seems interesting when generating less three-dimensional patterns. Here you can see the three assembly options with the same module.
The flowers seemed interesting to me as a main element but I needed to obtain a more homogenous tissue around the body so as not to saturate it so much. The simplest option was to assemble the module in a flat way, creating as a kind of overlapping scales as you can see in the photo. The second step has been to unite both options through the same hooks.
It was time to put the piece in the manikin and implement the composition that I had drawn, but I wondered about the combination of colors. I decided not to use the roses and use the two colors available to make the first test either with flowers, white or black.