coil

COIL [WIP]

ROPE FOOTWEAR CONSTRUCTION

Footwear concept creation

What if shoes and other three-dimensional softgoods could be manufactured from continuous material like rope? This exploration applies inspiration from filament-based rapid prototyping and the traditional ceramics coil method to wearable textile products.

key learnings

• Applying tension to a coiled workpiece creates concavity—I discovered that pulling more or less on the rope while stitching could shape the resulting workpiece.

• Use a post bed sewing machine for 3D shapes with small openings—my original intent was to create a full shoe with a single continuous rope, but the flat bed home sewing machine I used couldn’t create that closed shape. Using a post bed machine next time should help make it possible.