PLA filament for 3D printing: dyeable!
Lately I've been considering all the implications of 3D printing technology for costume craftwork, and have begun working with the Makerspace here on the UNC campus which is attached to our library system.
If you're not familiar with the process of 3D printing and some of the ways in which it's beginning to be incorporated in professional costume production, check out this excellent blog post by Joe Kucharski of Tyrrany of Style, which is essentially a postification of a panel he chaired at the USITT national conference this year. It's a great overview of how the process works, the materials one might use to 3D-print objects, and culminates with several different types of applications currently in use (like 3D-printed "filigree" masks worn by Disney parade performers) or in development (like scanning and reproducing renaissance lace using a 3D printer).
So, here's only a small contribution to the information one might take into consideration when evaluating the possibilities of 3D printing in creating props and costumes for theatre: dyeability. The filaments one can use to 3D print do come in colors, but those colors are fairly limited at present and (if i may make an aesthetic value judgement) somewhat unsophisticated in range. The printed objects can be painted as well, but in the spirit of experimentation, i did wonder about the dyeability of the completed object. Could a printed piece be dyed faster than it could be painted, for example, since time is often a factor in our field? Paint needs time to dry, but if you could dye an object, you could just rinse and dry it off and hand it back to an actor within the hour.
In looking at the composition of the various kinds of plastic filament that one can feed through a 3D printer, i noticed that PLA plastic's composition seemed to indicate a fairly high proportion of cellulose-derived elements. That would make it potentially dyeable, would it not?
So, i requested some sample filament in both clear and white from our Makerspace librarian and conducted some preliminary tests using Rit dye. I chose Rit for several reasons. It's the most common dyestuff in theatre dye facilities, and easily purchased in most grocery stores, even. It's easily used in solution by even a novice dyer. And it's a union dye, which means it has components which dye both cellulose-based and protein-based fibers, so if the PLA plastic is of a blended composition, it would potentially affect more of its components than a fiber-specific dyestuff like an acid dye or a direct dye.
Check out my findings!
The top two pieces are the undyed filament,
and subsequent ones show uptake of different colors of the Rit range.
More of the filament is in reels at the bottom of the image.
The only one of the tests which i'm not pleased with the result is the Dark Green sample, which came out more of a taupe brown. The rest took the colors quite nicely, and the translucent PLA retained its translucency. This could be fantastic for a prop item that is supposed to be made of a translucent material like an "amber" pendant or a "cobalt glass" finial or similar, especially if the prop or costume needed not to break like actual glass or amber might.
If you're not familiar with the process of 3D printing and some of the ways in which it's beginning to be incorporated in professional costume production, check out this excellent blog post by Joe Kucharski of Tyrrany of Style, which is essentially a postification of a panel he chaired at the USITT national conference this year. It's a great overview of how the process works, the materials one might use to 3D-print objects, and culminates with several different types of applications currently in use (like 3D-printed "filigree" masks worn by Disney parade performers) or in development (like scanning and reproducing renaissance lace using a 3D printer).
So, here's only a small contribution to the information one might take into consideration when evaluating the possibilities of 3D printing in creating props and costumes for theatre: dyeability. The filaments one can use to 3D print do come in colors, but those colors are fairly limited at present and (if i may make an aesthetic value judgement) somewhat unsophisticated in range. The printed objects can be painted as well, but in the spirit of experimentation, i did wonder about the dyeability of the completed object. Could a printed piece be dyed faster than it could be painted, for example, since time is often a factor in our field? Paint needs time to dry, but if you could dye an object, you could just rinse and dry it off and hand it back to an actor within the hour.
In looking at the composition of the various kinds of plastic filament that one can feed through a 3D printer, i noticed that PLA plastic's composition seemed to indicate a fairly high proportion of cellulose-derived elements. That would make it potentially dyeable, would it not?
So, i requested some sample filament in both clear and white from our Makerspace librarian and conducted some preliminary tests using Rit dye. I chose Rit for several reasons. It's the most common dyestuff in theatre dye facilities, and easily purchased in most grocery stores, even. It's easily used in solution by even a novice dyer. And it's a union dye, which means it has components which dye both cellulose-based and protein-based fibers, so if the PLA plastic is of a blended composition, it would potentially affect more of its components than a fiber-specific dyestuff like an acid dye or a direct dye.
Check out my findings!
The top two pieces are the undyed filament,
and subsequent ones show uptake of different colors of the Rit range.
More of the filament is in reels at the bottom of the image.
The only one of the tests which i'm not pleased with the result is the Dark Green sample, which came out more of a taupe brown. The rest took the colors quite nicely, and the translucent PLA retained its translucency. This could be fantastic for a prop item that is supposed to be made of a translucent material like an "amber" pendant or a "cobalt glass" finial or similar, especially if the prop or costume needed not to break like actual glass or amber might.