A weaving creation system for bamboo craft-design collaborations

Abstract

As one of the most ancient crafts in the handicraft times, bamboo weaving dates back to thousands of years ago. The diversified bamboo weaving methods can be used to fabricate daily necessities, such as fan, basket, dustpan, etc. With the development of modern manufacturing technology, however, bamboo handicrafts are no longer popular, significantly due to their lack of modern aesthetic value. Organizations like the World Crafts Council (WCC) try to integrate traditional crafts into modern life, but the cooperation between designer and craftsman involves repeated communications via a laborious manual process. Therefore an interactive system is proposed herein to support the process from design inspiration to pattern abstraction to product creation. The MetamoCrochet system uses thermochromic ink to customize the patterns on woolen textile [Okazaki, et al. 2014]. Igarashi and Mitani presented a design system for card weaving to support the design of patters [Igarashi and Mitani 2014]. These cases which mainly focus on textile design, are easily modified and created in the process of knitting. However, the composition of patterns on bamboo-weaved products is difficult to modify, and can hardly be recreated during the weaving process, due to the hardness and toughness of bamboo material. Starting from the inspiration source for patterns, our system aims to, by presetting the patterns, simplify the bamboo-weaving craft and integrate modern aesthetic value into the design of daily products in modern times.