3D Design - Sketching and Experimenting

Today we achieved quite a lot because we managed to do some test sketches, create some prototype models out of various materials and , casting some chocolate containers that I wish to study and alter to try out my ideas. This a particularly long and arduous day so I have a to talk about.

The first thing I made was a product that I based upon a sketch in my book. This design was based upon a standard chocolate box. The point of this experiment was see if I could construct a box out of scrap materials and cheap adhesive. The box was supposed to be glued with a glue gun but the one I was using was faulty so I improvised with tape which is a very weak adhesive and one I will not be using in the near future. However the design, for all intents and purposes, works and the card board holds well together so it could be a possible material that I would use in the near future. The design will not be my final one but shows what you can do with the cheapest and recyclable materials.

This next piece was based upon another sketch of mine which was to try another geometrical shape apart from a standard box shape. There are some measurements that I would like to alter so that I can make it bigger but apart from that it works relatively well. I'll definitely put it in my future sketches to further enhance the idea and maybe get a real box produced. When I do further experiments and designs I want to cover it with some actual box art because at the moment it looks plain and boring which really isn't my goal. The storage capabilities could be immense for this design if done properly.

The next thing I did for experimentation is to take a cast of an existing product to deconstruct, or to alter it for inspiration. The casting didn't go as planned as one of my items, a plastic sweet jar, collapsed on itself and is now permanently damaged. the future I'll try to avoid plastic objects for casting and to think further ahead in time before I act. If its any consolation, the bottle bent into an interesting shape so maybe its not entirely hopeless, I'll have to see when I take a plaster copy to see if it is truly salvageable.

The next experimentation we did was with plaster to create some molds to experiment with and to learn the basic techniques of mold making. The first item we did was the plastic bottle on its other side (the good side) and the intention was to create a mold so I could make future versions if I wish. The second was a replica using the plastic casting I did earlier. I won't know the results of these experiment till a later date.