  Soft materials with layered structure such as membranes, block copolymers,
and smectics exhibit intriguing morphologies with nontrivial curvatures. We
report on restructuring the Gaussian and mean curvatures of smectic A films
with free surface in the process of sintering, i.e. reshaping at elevated
temperatures. The pattern of alternating patches of negative, zero, and
positive mean curvature of the air-smectic interface has a profound effect on
the rate of sublimation. As a result of sublimation, condensation, and
restructuring, initially equilibrium smectic films with negative and zero
Gaussian curvature are transformed into structures with pronounced positive
Gaussian curvature of layers packing, seldom seen in samples obtained by
cooling from the isotropic melt. The observed relationship between the
curvatures, bulk elastic behaviour, and interfacial geometries in sintering of
smectic liquid crystals paves the way for new approaches to control soft
morphologies at micron and submicron scales.
