Nets and Knots: Techniques for Scaling Netted Lace
Author(s)
Johnston, Margaret
Advisor(s)
Marks, Lisa
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Abstract
Traditional handcrafts have potential for a variety of applications in the modern field of industrial design, from their historic function in the creation of everyday objects to recent applications in projects that leverage modern technology to push the boundaries of a craft. Previous work has demonstrated success in projects that adapt craft techniques at a large scale to create new products or architectural designs. This study explores options for scaling up netted lace-making techniques for use in a Georgia Tech Research Institute project that intends to send a net into space to collect space debris. Though fishing nets and sports nets are already mass-produced at a large scale, the machines that make them lack the nuance to make more than a single type of net from a machine. They impose limits on the material of the net, the scale at which it is made, and the ability to incorporate unique design choices, such as crossed or gathered stitches, into the pattern of the netting. At the other extreme, small-scale handcraft methods of making netted lace allow for a wide variety of pattern choices but are labor intensive processes for the crafter. The traditional tools of netted lace become unwieldy at the scale necessary for this project. This thesis therefore proposes a new technique for net-making which fills the gap identified between industrial machines that mass produce fishing nets and the method that handcrafters use to make small lace samples. The tools and techniques created for this purpose, developed through analogy to a number of other textile crafts, decrease the labor required on the part of the crafter while preserving their ability to make a variety of pattern choices in the design of the net.
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Date
2023-05-02
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