Anyone got a clue if the maker space could make this material? https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/jun/07/issey-miyakes-bao-bao-bag-celebrates-20-years-as-a-design-icon
Iridescent not essential it’s more about shapes bonded onto a fabric.
Baobao bag type material
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Changed the post to discussion so people can comment 
I would make this by using mesh fabric like organze fabric and printing TPU onto that fabric for a flexible structure or if a hard shell is wanted then just using PLA
You could start with just PLA as the bamboo is not as yet sighted of for TPU @3dtechs
I’d want the fabric to be able to move - might try making clothes out of it, but the segments can/should be solid I think?
The organza/chiffon is very thin and flexible/flowy.
But as soon as you add solid shapes to it you are binding it’s geometry so an amount of experimentation would be needed to see how close the shapes can be before it becomes stiff… using TPU would help keep it less rigid
We’ve printed a little TPU, just can’t do it on the AMS because it can’t push back into the spool
We can have a look at this. I think I just need to see the process so we can see if it’s ok with the Bambu
@scday94 fixed my 3D creality, top shelf above the Mac in the clean room. It could be used to do some TPU fabric printing at the space.
I got a pal with a real Baobao bag to take some close up photos. I wonder if the mesh is important? Like does it let the print bind better?
Well you could just glue shapes on a mesh. But 3D printing locks the 2 materials together
I would be making those triangles out of something like died leather with a coat of clear lacquer over it to give it the shine. 
Patent leather is manufactured with a shiny surface.
Why not just change the pattern to something genuinely exiting… like a quasi-symmetrical iteration.
https://physics.aps.org/assets/3970c7e1-6915-4649-a8b4-3316da913500/e14_1.png
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I have hexagon (the best shape) based plans but I want to see if we can reproduce the tech, in a way that doesn’t involve my shoddy gluing skillls.
I have zero interest in producing knock off bags, but using some sort of 3d printer to attach solid shapes to fabric is incredibly interesting to me. Scales? Articulated arms? Who knows. Step one is to get the basic idea working though.
Thats a shame I could do with a new handbag 
. In ceramic mosaic tile manufacture the sheets of tiles have the mesh glued and thermally cured to the back of them whilst upside-down. I’m not a pro on the available 3d filament but would it be outlandish to maybe place your hexagons on a guide on the printer bed and print the flexible backing fabric.
I’ve seen this stuff done completely on a 3d printer using mesh/screen fabric. You lay a couple away f initial layers down, pause the print, lay the mesh on top, and continue print. You need to possibly make some g code edits to compensate for the first few layers and the increase extrusion on the first few layers after restart to force plastic into the weave
Keep in mind that hexagons won’t tile in a way that gives you any actual lines to fold along. So the drape will be really dependent on spacing between tiles and will always be trying to peel up the corners of the hexagons when it folds.
Here’s a sketch using hexagons and triangles that will allow folding along lines.
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From a manufacturing perspective, it would be way easier to laminate pieces into fabric if everything is flat. Alternatively opt for 3D printing if you want to design upwards away from the fabric on each piece and get bumpy with it.
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Does anyone have any advice on the mesh? Or can I get any old thing from the fabric shop?
This would be amazing. Let’s make this!
Mesh from the fabric shop might be a bit thin for this, I’d try nylon mesh for gardeners if I was you - people use it to make cages to keep insects off their tomatoes etc