Fig. 1: Design and emergent stiffness of objects beaded using an angle weave technique.

a Sample angle-woven swatches comprised of adjoining loops of n beads, where n = 3–7. Non-Euclidean tiling of unit loops can lead to three-dimensional surfaces. Scale bars, 20 mm. b A beaded shell shown before tensioning (i), with thread pattern schematically traced over a photograph of otherwise opaque, 17 mm acrylic beads threaded with steel rope. Scale bar, 20 mm. Applying tension to the two free ends sends the half-dodecahedral shell out-of-plane (ii–iv). The structure becomes rigid across length scales by clamping the thread, capable of bearing large point (ii) and distributed (iii) loads. Scale bar, 100 mm. (iv), μ-CT reconstruction of the model of the same design using 10 mm acrylic beads (yellow) threaded with 0.25 mm nitinol wire (blue). Scale bar, 10 mm.