I wanted to see how to apply PVA to a real life application so see how it could be used in the real world. I wanted to push the idea of putting it in clothing to result the clothes to mold into a form you molded it into, I though about the Idea of putting starch into shirts before they are sold so they keep their shape and when the customer takes it home they wash it into its original tactual property. I wanted to take this idea a step further by putting the clothes into its 3D form as if someone it wearing it by socking the clothes in PVA. I felt that its idea could be used as shop displays so you could see how the garment is warn without needing a mannequin or for online and catalog photos so you wouldn't need a model to show how the clothes look in the 3D position. but then to get it back to its wearable state you can just wash it out as PVA is water soluble.
I felt that I should test my idea to see if it would work, I tried with a small garment, a sock;
I felt I should start with something small as then could get a feel of how many layers of PVA I would need and know what parts would need more PVA to create the garment to stand alone. I thought a sock world be easy, but I found it probably not the best choice. To get the best result from PVA on cloth you have to prevent the mold from moving and using your own foot as the mold made it very hard to keep it at the same angle throughout the whole molding process. I found it took hours to make the PVA strong enough to stand on its own, I had to do it over three days and 100's of coats, the first day was easy as the PVA absorbed fast and dried fast as their was a grater ratio of cloth the PVA, but when taking the sock off it could not stand alone, it was more like an unwashed sock, had some stiffness to it but couldn't keep a 3D form.
Day two to a bit longer to absorb into the cloth as there was already PVA in the cloth, this time I wasted to see what would happen if I put the PVA/boric acid solution into the sock. I found that it made a thicker paste though the sock, it was more difficult to absorb and dry but it made it stronger, I rubbed it into parts of the sock that needed more support like the sides of the sock and the heal, the part that would take most of the weight and needed the most molding. I found this day harder to take the sock off when it had dried as it had taken its from a bit more. it still couldn't stand on its own but you could see a shape forming.
On day three I found it quite hard to get the sock on as the PVA had prevented the sock to have any elasticity it it. I did about 5 more coats of PVA on the sock focusing on the areas which weren't strong enough to stand alone. Day three took the longest to dry as their was less cloth for the PVA to absorb into but I could feel the sock taking form around my foot. The hardest part came when the PVA had dried and that was to take the sock off my foot. As the PVA and molded around my foot an had given the sock a lot of strength and stiffness and also lost a lot of elasticity it was extremely difficult to remove the sock, but with a lot of careful tugging I got it off and it could stand alone.
As I had to pull it off my foot I feel that it had lost some of its iconic foot shape as I had pulled it at certain parts making them weaker thats why it is slightly wrinkly on the higher parts and also why some of the foot part caves it. this wouldn't of happened it I could some how get my foot out without putting tension on the form. I feel to get this to look perfect as if a foot is sitting inside I would have to have some kind of mold that would easily and cleanly come out of the sock with out inserting tension on it. but as a whole you can see where my would was with curves in the sock like around the toes and the arch on the sole. It also stands alone which is the main point of this application.
No comments:
Post a Comment