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Lesson 4 Thermoplastics and vacuum forming

What is the technique?

  Thermoplastic refers to the quality of a fibre whose molecular structure breaks down and becomes fluid at a certain temperature, making it possible to reshape the fabric by pleating, moulding or crushing. The fabric is ‘fixed’ on cooling and cannot be altered unless heated to a temperature greater than the one at which it was reshaped.

  Vacuum Forming is a simplified version of thermoforming, whereby a sheet of plastic is heated to a forming temperature, stretched onto or into a single-surface mould, and held against the mould by applying vacuum between the mould surface and the sheet.

 

What are the relevant materials needed for the technique?

  Thermoplastic：

  • Polyester fabric
  • Aluminium foil
  • Rubber bands
  • Moulding objects or template (e.g. marbles, laser cut shapes, yupo paper origami)
  • A pot for boiling

  Vacuum Forming：

  • Thermoplastic sheet (e.g. PVC)
  • Scissors that cut plastic
  • Objects for moulding
  • Vacuum forming machine

 

How to achieve technique?

Thermoplastic:

  Simply reshape the polyester fabric by all sorts of creative ways such as twisting, wrapping on marbles etc; Secure them with rubber band and wrap the parts with aluminium foil and then tie with rubber bands; Put the pieces inside the boiling water and let it heat for at least 1 hour or longer depending on the quantity and size; Take out the piece, unwrap and wait for it to cool down and dry.

Vacuum forming:

  Preheat the vacuum forming machine; In the meantime, cut out PVC sheets based on the template provided; place object in the center in the machine, load it down, insert the sheet and lock it in place; heat up the sheet until it was flat after being wavy and push back the heater part; use the handle to move object up and press button at the same time; take out the finished piece and trimmed the edges.

 

What are the uses and applications of the technique?

  Thermoplastic can be used to form all kinds of shape, either organic or uniform depending on the mould used; It can create a volumetric fabric and add texture to be part of a wide range of products such as dresses, bed sheets accessories and etc.

  Vacuum forming is made with thermoplastic to create products including enclosures, packaging, helmets and baths. In terms of the small machine and material provided in school, we could use it to make packaging as well as moulds for resin casting.

 

Experiment

Thermoplastic:

First trial during lesson

  As shown in the above images, I tried different objects to reshape the polyester fabric, including marbles, key rings, bells and the other was simply by pinching the fabric up and tied it.

    The metal objects rust after boiling and stained slightly on the inside of the fabric so that was something to be careful about. The patterns turned out really nice especially with the metal rings where it had stacking layers of circles. This added depth and volume to the fabric.

Second trial

    The second time, I tried to create patterns with paper clips and I did it on both the organza and a mixed fabric (probably cotton & polyester) to see what the differences were.  I also put the marbles from both sides of the fabric to explore the form. 

   The red organza with marbles on both sides turned out quite nice and it was more 3 dimensional and bouncy. The mixed fabric surprisingly held the shapes of the objects but it was not quite able to maintain if I stretched it.

Origami Template

  We also learnt that we could use a plastic sheet known as Yupo paper to fold origami and used it as the polyester template. Firstly, I drew up the pattern on my computer and used a laser cutter to produce the accurate template. This step took some trial and error time to adjust the power & speed of the cutter. And lastly I had a fold-able sheet of simple origami as shown below.

   I realized that normally two pieces were used as the template when I had already set everything up. Therefore I tried my best to fit the organza onto the template bit by bit and added couples of rubber bands to secure it.  The organza was cut to the size of the flatten piece of the origami. And the result was quite successful and neat.

 

Vacuum Forming：

Templates in two sizes

Trial and errors

  I tried vacuum forming with different objects as shown below. Some of the cylindrical objects actually formed a smooth slop around the object as I pressed pump when it was forming. Even though it didn’t  fit tightly on the surface, the results were quite interesting. One of the piece broke as the air was trapped inside the small space in the center. Besides these, I also tried vacuum forming to make moulds for resin.

 

 

Personal Reflection

  Boiling and reshaping polyester fabrics creates very volumetric pieces. I found it quite useful that it can be turned into both organic or organized patterns and the end result is also very stretchy and interactive. Even though it was quite time consuming and repetitive to prepare the template objects, it was a relatively simple technique to achieve nice effects.

  In terms of vacuum forming, I believe it is useful to create packaging as well as resin moulds. The objects we choose for moulding should be able to withstand heat, otherwise the plastic sheet would slant sideway. We could also combine objects and create more interesting form.

 

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Lesson 3 Materials exploration Fabric of thread & Fusing plastics

What is the technique?

  • Fabric of thread

  Using a sewing machine to create design with thread, yarns and other fabric on a water soluble stabilizer.

  • Plastic fusing

  When layered, heated, and pressurized, plastic bags will melt or fuse to each other or themselves creating a new type of durable, sewable fabric.

 

What are the relevant materials needed for the technique?

Fabric of thread:

  • Sewing Machine
  • Water soluble stabilizer
  • Threads, yarns, fabrics, strips, trimmings etc.
  • UV-resistant clear acrylic spray
  • Optional: object to form shape over

Plastic fusing:

  • Plastic bags
  • Iron
  • Baking papers
  • Scissors

 

How to achieve technique?

Fabric of thread:

  Layout threads and yarns on water soluble stabilizer and stich across using a sewing machine; wash the piece in warm water; for wearable pieces, wash thoroughly to remove all gluey membrane; for pieces that are to be moulded, place it on the moulding object once the stabilizer dissolves and leave it to dry; Spray the dry piece with acrylic spray to harden it.

Plastic fusing:

  Cut the plastic bags to create designs; place a sheet of baking paper at the bottom and then put the plastics strips on top; lay down another layer of baking paper and iron over it

 

What are the uses and applications of the technique?

  Fabric of threading can be used for a wide range of applications from formal dining table to eveningwear. It can also create interesting shape depending on the moulding objects. For example, it can be made into light shade.

  Plastic fusing allows us to create a new type of ‘fabric’ for all kinds of projects; the end results can have different colours, patterns and thickness as we make them.

 

Experiment

Lay down threads on water soluble material to create a design

  I tied two strings with three different colours to form a circle and then put down some threads matching the colour theme. And then I put another layer of water soluble material and pinned down the design. The piece shrank when I tried to stich down but it turned out quite nicely. I moulded it over a square box.

 

Plastic fusing testing during lesson

 

  Trying out different colors and mixing different types of plastic, I realized the shrinkage was very obvious. Some thin clear plastic actually melted and became scrappy.

  I learnt from YouTube videos to cut, tied and make plastic yarn (plarn) and pressed it with an iron to make it more sturdy.

  I also experimented with fusing different colours of plastic bags and tried to merge them together. It was quite difficult to merge if I did each colour one by one first as they would already shrink and harden. I did manage to join the pieces and turned it into a tube. However, it broke when I tried to cut and made some design.

 

Plastic fusing with fallen leaves

  Picking up some leaves and flower on a rainy day, I decided to test something new by ‘encapsulating’ them in clear plastic sheets. Even though I put more than one sheet of plastic, the end result still had holes everywhere. I trimmed the edges to following the shape and waited to see the colour change in a few days. It didn’t encapsulate as I anticipated but it kind of resembled a frosty leave which was also interesting.

 

Personal Reflection

  I think fabric of threads was a more organized method since the stiches added onto the design is quite uniform. It can be used to create very intricate patterns with colour variations. Personally I think plastic fusing has a wider range of application and more potential for exploration so that is something I will try in the future.

 

 

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Lesson 2 : Transfer Printing

What is the technique?

  Transfer printing is the transference of an image to fabric or other materials (wood, plastic, glass, ceramics etc.) via a subtrate. Image is transferred via heat and pressure. The technique relies on the fact that dyes sublime when heated which is sometimes also known as sublimation printing. And below are the types of technique we learnt:
  • Dry Transfer
  • Wet Transfer
    • Direct Transfer Printing
    • Indirect Transfer Printing
  • Digital Transfer

 

What are the relevant materials needed for the technique?

  • Paper
  • Baking Paper
  • Iron/Heat Press Machine
  • Flat objects to create pattern (e.g. leaves, threads, feather etc.)
  • Fabric or any other intended medium to be transferred onto
  • Dry Transfer: Fabric Crayons
  • Wet Transfer: Transprint Inks, paper, brushes
  • Digital Transfer: The MagicTouch Transfer Media (TTC 3.1 for light coloured fabric, CPM 6.2 for non-fabric hard surfaces)

 

How to achieve technique?

Dry Transfer:

  Draw pattern with fabric crayon (e.g. rubbing technique) on paper; place fabric at the bottom and then the paper with pattern facing the fabric; lastly put one piece of baking paper on top and then iron it evenly

Wet Direct Transfer:

  Simply paint flat objects such as leaves with Transprint Ink, place them on the fabric with the coloured side down and then iron it.

Wet Indirect Transfer:

  Paint the paper with Transprint Ink and cut to the size of the design; place fabric at the bottom and then put the flat objects to block the transferring to create the empty space in the design; place the paper with ink; lastly put one piece of baking paper on top and then iron it evenly

Digital Transfer:

  Using computer software to create pattern (remember to mirror the original image for printing) and then print them onto the A4 MagicTouch medium; Turn on the heat Press Machine and wait for it to reach designated temperature; Similarly place the fabric or other material down first (for material that is not perfectly flat, we can place a piece of fabric at the bottom first to make sure a good contact of the two surfaces); lastly set the timer and start the heat press; we can remove the MagicTouch with either hot peel method or cold peel depending on the result we like 

 

What are the uses and applications of the technique?

  Transfer Printing is used to create all sorts of patterns on different kinds of medium, ranging for common merchandise such as shirts, hat, mugs, ceramic as well as wood provided the material can withstand the heat used in the process of making and the material can have good contact of the print; The end product can have very decorative flat design.

 

Experiment

Preparation and crayon rubbing patterns on A4 paper

 

Paint directly using brushes on a mushroom

 

Indirect transfer patterns

  I brushed the objects with different colours and folded the piece of paper to create the interesting pair of patterns. The mushroom also produced a very nice shaper with details, much like a jelly fish.

 

4 pieces of Transprint Ink paper

  I tried to create different kind of textures and was curious to know how they would turn out.

 

Test prints on cotton (Using Iron)

  For the Transprint ones, the colours were quite different from those on the paper and it took quite more than a minute to have the patterns transferred completely with an iron. The texture drawn as shown above didn’t show very well.

  The Crayon ones were quite clear and fast with the Iron. Although I did think normal crayons work too and took quite long trying to iron the drawn pattern.

 

MagicTouch Prints (Using Heat Press Machine)

  I printed 3 A4 MagicTouch TTC3.1 & 1 CPM6.2 and then cut out individual patterns. I also prepared different types of materials to be printed on, including polyester, cotton, MDF, plywood, Acrylic sheet, faux leather and aluminium sheet and etc.

 

Temperature: 215

Duration: 30s on cotton &Hot Peel

  The first attempt seemed quite successful so I proceeded to print on a MUJI bag (made of cotton) with the same setting.

  However, the image of the owl was not able to be transferred after I repeated the process twice. It was quite clear though that there was still quite a bit of ink remaining on the print.

 

  The print on the left went well despite the colour turned greener. On the right, the blue was not as vibrant. I tried to overlay the previous bag with the green Transprint Ink piece for 35 seconds and it turned out better.

Using the same setting, I also did testing on Polyester fabric and the results were very nice. However, the white borders were also very obvious on this fabric and I think we need to trim the paper precisely to the edge if we only want the design without background. I also noted that we need to mirror the image before printing.

 

Temperature: 183

Duration: 1min plus on Acrylic & Hot Peel

I was curious to find out what the other side of the print be like so I tried on a sheet of clear acrylic. The acrylic sheet started soften and warped after cooling down.

 

Temperature: 180

Duration: 50s for plywood; 30s for faux leather

I cut out the honeycomb pattern and transferred it onto plywood and faux leather and both looked quite nice. The faux leather had a bit sunken in at the pattern but it was quite interesting.

 

Temperature: 180

Duration: 1min on aluminium Sheet

The design turned out very nice on the aluminium sheet as shown. I cut out small strips of patterns to test whether the colours can be overlaid.

 

Temperature: 180

Duration: 50s for plywood & MDF

However, the design didn’t turn out well on darker coloured material as shown. The MagicTouch Medium we used were mainly for light-colour material only. After repeating the heating process, it was still missing details and unfortunately the wood also started to warp.

 

  After the field trip to MagicTouch Lab, I decided to try printing on white fabric again. This time, I ironed all the fabric first and adjusted the knot to max pressure for the heat transfer machine. The test print with a smaller piece went pretty well as shown above so I proceeded to print on a white shirt I brought. However, despite the exactly the same setting, the three parts turned out very differently.

Personal Reflection

  I feel that this technique is very useful to create colourful decorative pattern; There will be colour difference from the original to the transferred material so maybe it is good to test out the colours before implementing onto final design; I realize that using Transprint Ink has the most vibrant colours compared to the others; Crayon has a very nice sketching doodling feel to it but the fabric crayons actually can’t create too detailed, accurate and intricate design as compared to digital print; Digital print actually depends largely on the materials used and it takes trials and errors to find out which combination(colours, types of patterns and materials) is the best. Personally I prefer the print on cotton fabric as well as leather.

 

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