Design and Fabrication Recommendations

*this document is a work-in-progress*

  • Design Recommendations 
    • Do not overlap elements in the design
    • Move or resize elements to give enough space around each element
    • Adhere to Tactile Graphic Design guidelines (via Tactile Schematics)
      • Hollow is more discernible than solid
      • Use one graphic per page
      • Provide ¼” breathing room between elements
      • Insert a triple slash in the upper right corner for page orientation OR cut the corner piece.
    • Discuss with curators which elements are historically important
    • Consider elements that should be included in order to convey context
      • ie.  letters are not necessarily legible tactilely, but are important contextually 
  • Fabrication Recommendations 
    • 65# cardstock 
      • Heavier watercolor paper is too thick – thread sinks into it so is not recommended for tactile legibility 
      • Easily sourced
    • Yupo paper – thread “sits” highest on top of this paper, also very durable and can be cleaned with a damp cloth or disinfectant wipe 
    • Coats & Clark Polyester 40wt thread for machine embroidery – blurrier than rayon 
    • Sulky Rayon Thread for Machine Embroidery – more consistent, tougher 
    • Plain cotton thread jammed too easily and also got fuzzy very quickly, durability is a concern
    • Not all 40wt thread is the same – Brothread is much thinner than Coats & Clark
    • Tear away and cut away stabilizer were used interchangeably. Tear away was used with spray adhesive and the cutaway stabilizer was self-adhesive.  
    • Slow speed on Embroidery Machine, though not too slow so that tension is too slack
    • In general, keep stitches on paper more sparse than they would be used on fabric. If stitches are too close together they will perforate the paper. 
  • Text Recommendations
    • Design
      • EMS Readability Font as part of the Hershey Text extension produces clear, simple letters that stitch moderately well. 
      • 3mm is a good large stitch distance to start with.  For very curvy or precise lettering, reduce it to 2 mm. The tolerance can be adjusted as well (lower) if you find that letters aren’t being stitched completely.  If the tolerance is lower, the software will add more stitches necessary to complete a line. 
      • Sometimes, particularly for small letters, the thread won’t stay in the needle hole, as the stitch is too short.  You can use the Node tool (N) to extend the path by a tiny bit and that often is enough to get a good stitch for that part of the letter.
      • Although useful for creating text, the execution was not entirely reliable in terms of perfectly creating fully-formed letters each time a design was stitched.  
  • Ink/Stitch // Inkscape Parameter guidelines for creating evaluated patterns and lines