Swooped striations

This project investigates how a knitted membrane can shape and stabilize a bending rod. The textile combines acrylic, nylon, and polyester yarns with white elastic yarn. As the piece is pulled into form, the white elastic expands while the other yarns respond differently to tension. Their striped arrangement makes those changes visible across the surface.

The membrane spans between the curved rod and a rigid stick that pushes the assembly apart. Tension in the knit holds the stick in position and maintains the rod’s bent shape. The surface emerges from this relationship among textile stretch, rod bending, and the distance imposed by the stick, rather than from a fixed mold.

Each configuration produces a different curled surface. The study uses minimal-surface form finding as a way to examine how a tensioned textile settles between its boundaries, while the overlapping and shifting edges produce geometries that resist a simple front, back, or symmetrical reading. The sequence of forms shows how changing the boundary conditions can reshape both the knit and its stripe pattern.

Project information

• Project type: Knitted membrane and bending-active structure study

• Date: 2022

• Materials: Acrylic, nylon, polyester, and elastic yarns; flexible rod; rigid stick

• Dimensions: Approximately 1–2 ft × 1 ft