vernelle noel – New Textiles 2012

Ruled Surfaces & String Sculptures

adinaroth — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:03:36 +0000

For my Final Project for New Textiles 2012, I did a series of with string sculptures and made a structure in which they can be created, then removed and reused.

I started thinking of string sculptures and ruled surfaces while working on my project for Materializing Design with Larry Sass… My partner (Linlin) and I were responsible for the interiors… and the idea of using strings/ a ruled surface for the interior appealed to me. As I did more research, I found the area an intriguing one to explore… See photos of the built project below.

Digitally fabricated curved pavilion with Ruled-Surface interior

Photo of built project. A ruled surface can be described as the set of points swept by a moving straight line…

Survey of previous work in the area

Gabriel Dawe

Ball-Nogues Studio

Jane Echelman

More work in the area: Fred Sandback, Michael Eisenberg

Project Development

Digital Model and Render of Fabrication and String Sculptures

String Sculpture 01

Structure designed to create String Sculptures.

After assembly of structure, yarn was woven through the openings to create the above design…

Liquid Plastic… mixing of parts for application…

Sculpture after applying liquid plastic…

String Sculpture 02

Larger structure of Masonite that was designed in Rhino, then laser cut.

Other pieces designed and cut to attach to main mold above. These pieces are used to construct sculptures, then can be removed from the main mold…. enabling the mold to be reused…

Larger string sculpture… A scaled up version of the smaller one above…

Structure is 32″ (2′-8″) tall…

Weaving of yarn

String Sculpture 02 was a learning lesson on what happens “in-between” as the scale increases…

After liquid plastic was applied to the sculpture, it was removed from the mold.

The colors of the yarn changed a bit after application… it became dull… With more exploration and experimentation the results of many varied algorithms, directions, and order of weaving can reap many results I am certain…

String Sculpture 03

After String Sculpture 02 was removed from the mold, it was time to attempt String Sculpture 03… This one would be a Hyperboloid Structure… The Circle structure was hot glued to the structure, with small pieces separating the two from each other for easy removal…

Weaving of the yarn between surfaces… The BLUE yarn would be rotated 90 degrees and MAGENTA yarn rotated 180 degrees.

I felt like I was reeling in fish! Pulled long distances of yarn for tapestry needles…

Close up shot of the yarn…

Part one complete… Now for Part two..

Weaving of the magenta yarn… woven at a 180 degree turn..

Bellissimo!!

Almost complete…. almost….

Finished weaving…

Really nice to the touch…

Photo of Sculpture after hardening with liquid plastic…

Challenges and Learning experiences

The design of the pieces for easy demolding of the string sculpture – This becomes important when it comes to removing the sculptures after the application of the plaster… Separation of the sculpture from the mold so that neither is destroyed was a challenge.
Scaling – moving from one scale to another changes the resulting form and spaces tremendously! By working at different scales a lot can be learned.

Future Work

Create more string sculptures – I ran out of liquid plastic and would like to purchase more and harden more sculptures.. explore the possibility of their use beyond an installation. How can this be applied in architecture?
Try Kinetic String Sculptures

This work by Vernelle Noel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License .

Ruled Surfaces/ String Sculptures

adinaroth — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:15:52 +0000

Final Project Update

I plan to do a string sculpture or sculptures for my final project.. Below are images of where I am thus far… I have made a 6″ x 6″ structure in which to make string sculptures, and another large one that is approx. 24″ x 12″. I have lost some photos I only now noticed.. But this is more or less where I am thus far.

Giacomo Balla’s Stained Glass Window

adinaroth — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:13:13 +0000

This week our assignment was to “Make a piece of flexible non-woven fabric at least 6″x6″ (~15cm x 15cm) with some noteworthy characteristic. (An unusual blend of materials, interesting structural characteristics, embedded circuitry, special electrical properties …?)” We were given a tutorial on casting latex rubber and silicone. I practiced using the latex rubber and placed material in the latex (see below). What I really wanted to do though was use LED’s in a silicone cast circuit.

Dried leaves in latex

Leaves in latex

Testing of LED on copper tape

The second thing I did after trying the latex was test the potential of a simple circuit using an LED, copper tape, and power (3.7V max). In my photo above my LED lit brightly and my simple circuit was a success.

Designs generated using Balla Grammar

I love the work of Italian futurist painter, Giacomo Balla, and last semester I developed a shape grammar of his work, i.e. a computational approach to the generation of Balla-esque paintings. I decided I would use one of my designs using his grammar as the design for my silicone cast LED circuit. I modeled the design to create 3-dimensional character and for cutting of the mold. below are images of the “stained window” design.

Model & render of the Balla grammar design

Design laser cut from Masonite

I soldered my LEDs unto copper tape (separately) for easier placement and working into the circuit.

At the back of my mold I drew the negative lines (red) and the positive lines (black) of the circuit as a guide. This would influence the direction in which I laid my LED’s for efficient wiring of the circuit to the positive or negative sides of the LEDs. See wiring and soldering below.

After installing my circuit with LEDs and securing my mold, I made my silicone mixture (equal parts of Part A and Part B) and poured it – it is very viscous – into my mold. The stipulated time for curing is 1.5 hours.

After de-molding I connected my silicone cast circuit to a power supply and voila! my LEDs lit up. In de-molding however, I damaged one of the electrical connections of my LEDs.

Click here for YouTube Video >>>

Lessons Learned:

Think carefully about demolding – I hot glued for circuit onto the Masonite frame so that it would be secure. I originally wanted the circuit suspended in the silicone. This plan changed after fixing it to the Masonite frame.
Demolding – thought I didn’t get to try it here with silicone, I would have tried PAM (spray cooking oil) on my Masonite for easy demolding.. I will next time I use silicone.
Mixing of clear silicone – I wish there was some visual clue to know if your Part A and Part B of silicone was properly mixed (please invent someone). I mixed my silicone, and was careful to stir and not whip so as not to introduce too many bubbles in the mixture. There were some areas that did not cure properly, and it would be because of improper mixing of the two parts.

Vernelle Noel – Resources

This work by Vernelle Noel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License .