The goal of this project was to explore the viability of encoding warp tensions using the technique of stitching into water soluble fabric. For the initial explorations I focussed my efforts on creating a simple stitched warp with varying tensions then I came back and stitched in a plain weave with embroidery floss before carefully removing some or all of the water soluble fabric. Some notes about these initial experiments are listed below.
Used an upholstery thread in the bobbin and normal weight in top thread — the top thread seems to be wound around the upholstery
To remove the water soluble fabric I used a brush and my fingers to selectively remove sections — starting at the most dimensional sections and working out
To ‘pop’ the bubbled warps into a 3d form I simply applied pressure normal to the surface of the fabric as I was washing away the water soluble fabric. It’s possible, in the future, that this pressure could be applied by some compliant material or inflatable.
I’m not entirely sure how to automate the process of inserting the warp — it’s possible that an embroidery machine could be used for this.
I explored some options for encoding the patterns but I found the easiest method was actually using Adobe Illustrator, a vector graphics software, to warp simple grids. Images of those can be seen below.
