EXP·013 Silk — a verlet-physics design experiment: a curtain of dip-dyed thread strands hangs across the viewport, sways in a wind field, and parts around the pointer like combed silk

Design Lab · Experiment 013 · tension

Comb through silk.

Ninety threads hung from the top of the page, each a chain of links that pull on their neighbours. A slow wind keeps them breathing; drag across and they part around your hand, then tension draws every strand home. The tips are dipped in vermilion.

~90 strands · verlet chains
scroll
[00]The loom

the series' first connected matter — every node pulls on its neighbour

Substrate
2D canvas · ~90 strands × 22 links, verlet integration
Tension
2 constraint passes per frame · each link restored to fixed length
Wind
layered sine field, horizontal bias · same trick as 011, applied as force
Dye
jade → pine body · vermilion dip on the last three links
Reaction
pointer is a moving cylinder · threads part around it and spring back
Status
🟢 hanging · contrast AA · reduced-motion pins the curtain still
[01]Six threads

the tension vocabulary, isolated · scroll to reveal

01 · the chain

Links, not points

012 experiments came before this one; all of them were made of free bodies. Here every node is chained to the next — move one and the whole strand negotiates.

02 · verlet

Position remembers

No velocity variable — each node compares where it is to where it was, and momentum falls out for free.

03 · dip dye

Vermilion tips

The last three links of every strand are dyed hot — the eye tracks the tips, so all the motion reads at the hem.

04 · the comb

Parting, not pushing

The pointer isn't a blast — it's a cylinder threads slide around, like fingers through hair. Force fades with distance squared.

05 · palette

Rice paper, jade, one dip

Warm ground, cool thread, hot hem.

06 · settle

Tension is the animation

Nothing here loops or eases. Disturb the curtain and what you're watching afterwards is just the constraint solver finding equilibrium — the spring-back is the show.

[02]Wind

drag the slider · 0 = dead air, high = a storm through the loom · blows through the hero curtain too

wind 26
Field note: the whole cloth is ~120 lines: move each node by its own inertia, add wind and gravity, then run two passes of "make every link its resting length again." That second step is the entire secret of rope, cloth, hair, and chains — one rule, applied stubbornly.