Arachne
The Tapestry+Digital design
Digital design and manufacture of Tapestry techniques
Tapestry, which are heavy, woven textiles characterized by ornamental or pictorial designs and used as wall hangings, curtains, upholstery, or to hang from windows or balconies in the past (Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program, 2018). The basic structure of tapestry is the same as the "plain" in the woven fabric, interlacing with a warp and a weft. Its most distinguished characteristic is the "hidden warp and Visible weft.", which uses the thickness, color configuration, and the techniques of bundling and winding to present a three-dimensional picture on the surface.
The panama hat《Arachne》presents tapestry’s intuitive creation style through generative design methodology and digital fabrication. In this design, tapestry’s centripetal unit is transformed into a hat’s pattern by Rhinoceros 3D + Grasshopper, so that each level has "circle" elements. In materials and fabrication, the weft part of this work uses various types wires as in the past. Then, the warp parts are written in G-code by Grasshopper and printed in Fused Filament Fabricationmethod using nylon filament. The results of 3D printing are interspersed with yarns, and traditional craftsmanship is perfectly combined with modern manufacturing methods.
