Patent ID: 8602274

Claim:
A method of making an article, comprising the steps of: providing a two dimensional link pattern on a two dimensional sheet of material, the link pattern comprising a plurality of link indicia that correspond to a plurality of links, wherein the link pattern includes at least two adjacent link indicia separated by a gap; associating each link from the plurality of links with a link indicia from the plurality of link indicia; threading a plurality of threads through the plurality of links to form a link matrix; pushing the plurality of links inwardly toward a central portion of the link matrix, thereby forming the link matrix into a three dimensional shape by changing a geometry of the link matrix from a substantially flat geometry to a curved geometry, wherein the gap corresponds to a curved portion of the link matrix; and associating the link matrix with a portion of the article, wherein the portion of the article is curved; wherein associating each link from the plurality of links with a link indicia from the plurality of link indicia includes associating links with the at least two adjacent link indicia; and wherein pushing the plurality of links inwardly toward the center portion of each thread places the adjacent links of the link matrix in an abutting relationship with one another by eliminating the gap between the adjacent links.