Furry Sample Book
This sample book shows different kinds of experimentations with fabrics and paper. The intention of this book is to show manipulation of materials and giving them another quality.
Intro
For this assignment we had to pick a contrast and be inspired by that contrast. I took another approach (also explained in this weeks zine). I chose to let myself be inspired by materials. Afterwards I figured out that this wasn't the best way to go, because I didn't even know if the materials were compatible with the laser cutter.
The contrast I chose after picking the materials is static vs. dynamic. Dynamic to me means constant change and static to me is more of a lack of change. A pattern can also be dynamic. Some patterns portray a sort of movement. In this book I will show you how I tried to make a static material more dynamic and the other way around.
The cover of the book also shows dynamic and static. From the outside the book is dynamic, but the inside of the cover is quite static.
Picking Materials
Although I wanted to be inspired by materials. I kind of already had an idea that I wanted to use fake fur. I also knew I wanted to use fabrics, because it matches my fashion background and it may come in handy in the future. To buy materials I went to A. Boeken Stoffen & Fournituren Winkel in Amsterdam and to Vlieger, which is a special paper shop, also in Amsterdam.
Fake fur
I bought the fur at A. Boeken Stoffen & Fournituren Winkel in Amsterdam. It costs €49.50 per meter. I bought a little less than one meter, because it was the last piece. The minimum amount you can buy is 10cm. My opinion is that fur is dynamic it goes every direction and you can adjust the direction. It has a sort of movement to it. I'm still not sure if this was allowed in the laser cutter, because one person said it was and the other one said it wasn't. I didn't take the risk to put it in the machine.
Fake leather
I also bought the leather at A. Boeken Stoffen & Fournituren Winkel. The price for this piece of fabric was €15,50 for 120cm by 140cm. I found this fabric in a bin with leftover fabrics. At least, I thought it were leftover fabrics. To me this fabric is quite static. It bends, but it's not stretchy or whatsoever. Although the pattern on the fabric may be a little dynamic.
Before I could experiment with this fabric I had to find out if this fabric was allowed in the laser cutter, because a lot of fake leathers release toxic gases when put in the laser cutter. I believe the material that causes it was PET, but I can't say for sure. To test this material I had to do a quick engraving test. If the material turns brown it releases toxic gases. As you can see in the picture below, the material is usable, because it didn't turn brown.
Awagami Asarakusui paper
I bought this paper at Vlieger Papier. The price is €3,95 per sheet. I'm not sure about the size, but I think it's between A3 and A2. The paper is made out of hennep. The paper itself is not very dynamic, but on the other hand the pattern and the structure of the paper makes it dynamic. So I think it’s in- between static and dynamic.
Inspiration
The cover
The first thing I made was the cover. This was a bit of a gamble, because I didn't even know how thick the book was going te be, but I already knew I wanted to put a band around it to keep it together. The binding method I wanted to use is the button-hole stitch (will be shown later). I wanted my cover to be B5 size (176 x 250 mm) and the inside A5 (148 x 210 mm).
I wanted a 'hard' cover so I started with cutting two rectangles in B5 size (176 x 250 mm) from cardboard with the laser cutter. The second thing I did, was attaching the cardboard to the fake leather with double sided tape (because I didn't have the right glue). I just pasted it on the leather and made sure to cute the leather bigger than the cardboard so you can fold the leather around it (shown in the third picture and also pasted with double sided tape). The fourth picture shows how nice and tight the leather looks around the cardboard.
When I had two nice pieces of wrapped cardboard I started sticking them on the fake fur (also with double sided tape). I pasted them on next to each other with 3cm in between them. After I attached everything I obviously found out that the double sided tape wasn't keeping it together. So I decided to sew them onto the fur. I did it with a white thread (because I had no black thread at home). White looks really ugly on the black leather so I coloured it black with a fineliner.
As I said before, I wanted a band around the book to close it. So I also bought a buckle and a band (separately). I attached them together and sewn it. I also bought these things at A. Boeken.
Experiments
Experiment 1
This experiment was the first one I did. This was before I knew if the leather was compatible with the laser cutter. So I applied a technique I learned at AMFI, pleating.
Material: Fake leather
Manipulation method: Sewing by hand
Tools: Needle, white thread (or another color) and pins
I started with cutting a piece of fabric. If you cut the fabric you have to cut it way wider than the width you want it to be, because you have to make pleats so you will lose a lot of width. Cut it at least 2 or 3 times wider than you want it to be. When I had my piece of fabric I started to make straight pleat, which I pinned in the beginning, middle and end. I continued making pleats until I had no fabric left to pleat. You have you make sure that you leave some space between the pleats. After I made the pleats I started sewing them together in way to get the pattern. If you look at the sample you can that it’s actually very easy to do. Unfortunately I kinda forgot to take some pictures during the process, because I was so into it haha. Hopefully it's sort of clear in the explanation.
Static/dynamic: The pattern in the sample makes it dynamic and the movement in the fabric when you stretch it makes it even more dynamic.
Experiment 2
After the engraving test this was the first experiment I did.
Material: Fake leather
Manipulation method: Laser cutting
Settings laser cutter: Cut
Speed: 90
Power: 20
The proces of this sample wasn’t really long. At first I looked up some inspiration. After the research phase I started to make a pattern with circles in Illustrator. I made sure to immediately fit the pattern in an A5 format, because that’s the size I wanted it to be. At first I ran some tests to find the right settings. After I found the right settings I could cut it with the laser cutter.
Static/dynamic: This sample is quite static. That’s because of the pattern. The pattern is really straight and structured. All the circles are perfectly lined up. There is no movement in the pattern nor in the fabric.
Experiment 3
For this experiment I kinda used the laser cutter in an indirect way.
Material: Fake leather & Awagami Asarakusui paper
Manipulation method: Laser cutting & glueing
Settings laser cutter: Cut
Speed: 90
Power: 20
Tools: Remains of experiment 2, glue, scissors and tweezers
This sample contains the remains of sample two. After I cut sample two I saw that the leftovers were pretty nice, because they were perfectly cut out circles. I didn’t want to waste that much of the material so I decided to use it. I cut a piece of Awagami Asarakusui paper (A5 size). I glued the circles on a piece of Awagami Asarakusui paper to create a more dynamic pattern. It doesn’t make the material itself very dynamic, only the pattern.
Static/dynamic: This sample is also not really dynamic. The pattern in quite dynamic, because of the movement in the pattern, but the material is quite stiff. That makes it more static.
Experiment 4
For this experiment I also didn't use the laser cutter, because the fake fur wasn't allowed into the laser cutter. I wanted to give the fur a different texture.
Material: Fake fur
Manipulation method: Glueing, spraying
Tools: Glue, hairspray and scissors
Fur is very dynamic. The hair moves in all different kinds of directions. So I wanted to make it less dynamic by making the fur stiff. At first I cut a piece of the fur in A5 size then I started glueing the fur. I glued all the fur in one direction and left it to dry. I noticed that after 24 hours the glue was still kind of sticky. So I sprayed hairspray over the fur in the hope that it became less sticky. Luckily that worked, but the effect wasn’t as much as I hoped for. Afterwards I cut off the hairs that were sticking out. Even though the fur is hard and glued to one direction. The structure and the colouring of the fur still gives it a dynamic look.
Static/dynamic: This sample is a little in-between static and dynamic, because the fur doesn’t have the same movement anymore as it had before. But on the other hand the structure of the hair makes it look dynamic anyway. Even though the fur doesn’t really move anymore.
Experiment 5
This experiment is one of my favourites. It's done with the laser cutter.
Material: Fake leather
Manipulation method: Laser cutting
Settings laser cutter: Cut
Speed: 90
Power: 28
My idea was to cut a pattern in the material which made the fabric changing shapes. I started with searching for inspiration. During the inspiration phase I saw a pattern which could work really well on this fabric. So I recreated a similar kind of pattern in Illustrator and started cutting it with the laser cutter.
Static/dynamic: This sample is the most dynamic to me, because a couple of reasons. The fake leather is the most static material I used. If you just look at this sample it’s just a piece of fabric with a pattern cut in to it. But when you stretch it, the whole shape changes. In this sample the transformation is the biggest and the movement is the most out of all samples. The pattern isn’t as dynamic as some of the others, but with this sample it’s more about transformation.
Experiment 6
In this experiment I combined two materials.
Material: Fake leather & fake fur
Manipulation method: Laser cutting & glueing
Settings laser cutter: Cut
Speed: 90
Power: 28
Tools: Glue, scissors
For this sample I wanted to combine a dynamic fabric with dynamic pattern. The pattern is cut out from the fake leather with the laser cutter. I got this idea out of my inspiration. At first I cut the fur in the size I wanted (A5) and then I made the pattern in Illustrator. After I made the pattern I put the fake leather in the laser cutter and started cutting the pattern. Now there is a dynamic fabric and a dynamic pattern. I glued the pattern on to the fake fur. The look of this sample is dynamic, but the feel is way less dynamic.The fur is restricted in its movement, because of the pattern that is attached to the fur.
Static/dynamic: This sample is the second most dynamic, because the pattern and fur combined makes it look very dynamic. It doesn’t move as much as sample five, but the fur still finds its way through the pattern and still moves.
Binding technique
The binding technique I used is called the button-hole stitch. I followed this tutorial:
Underneath this text you a schematic drawing of the base for this binding technique. I attached the pages to this. The dotted lines are folding lines and the rectangle in the middle is the hole. In the video she makes different sections with multiple papers. I just used one folded paper as a section. I also added the file of the schematic drawing. You can just put it in the laser cutter.
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