3D Printable Recycled Textiles: Material Innovation and a Resurrection of the Forgotten “shoddy” Industry

Abstract

This paper will disseminate an interdisciplinary project, undertaken at Edinburgh Napier University between the Design and Advanced Materials. Several 3D printable materials are commercially available that use recycled material, including post consumer PET bottles and wood, but none that incorporate textiles. This project was funded by the Textiles Future Forum in collaboration with four Scottish textile companies who provided “waste” textiles (wool, cashmere and leather), to be used in this way. In the cases of the wool and cashmere, this is predominantly selvedge waste from the looms and knitting machines, unusable scraps and fluff swept up from under the machinery. The leather was recycled from airplane seats, returned to the manufacturers for disposal. The paper will outline the relationship between 3D printing and the textile and fashion industries at this time and the beneficial traits of 3D printing technology, the historical context of the project, particularly the advent of “shoddy”, a now seldom used material with many extremely similar traits to this projects inception, how these historical processes have common characteristics with the procedures used in this project, a brief outline of how the 3D printable materials were created and an evaluation of the embodiment of the narrative of Scottish tradition and “authenticity” in the materials.

Keywords:

• 3D printing
• sustainability
• waste
• shoddy
• authenticity
• Scottish heritage

Acknowledgements

The author would like to extend thanks to Ari Loughlin, Research Assistant on this project and to Dr Kathy Vones and Sarah Taylor for their design work utilising the wool 3D printable filament.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samantha Vettese Forster

Samantha Vettese Forster is a Reader in Applied Art and Design at Edinburgh Napier University. She has a BA (Hons) in Jewellery and Silversmithing from Edinburgh College of Art, an MSc in Clothing Management and a PhD on The Relationship Between Art and Fashion in the Twentieth Century from Heriot Watt University. She has been lecturing in Critical and Contextual Studies at Heriot Watt and Edinburgh Napier University for twelve years. Her current research centres around digital craft, particularly 3D printing, and how it affects learning, engagement, consumption and sustainability. Funded projects include AHRC’s Design in Innovation: Research Development Funding “enhancing the authenticity and sustainability of the visitor heritage experiences through 3D printing technology” and the Textiles Future Forum “3D printer filaments and products utilising high value Scottish waste textiles”.

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