Harry Griffin
"We're all stories in the end, just make it a good one"
Mixed Materials
In the very first lesson of mixed materials we went over the very basics such as the four primary materials we will use: plastazote, worbla, varaform, and fosshape which all have their own individual properties and different ways they can be used for modelling and the different ways they can be shaped and the processes of how to do it.
Lesson One
The next part of the lesson was patterning and learning how to do it so we used different fruit and vegetables, as you can see I used a potato.
I first started by wrapping a the potato in strips of masking tape until it was completely covered. I then drew rings around it along with connection lines to make sure it will fit together again and then can line everything up properly. Next, I used a scalpel to cut around the rings to remove the potato and then cut slits in the pieces to lie them flat on the paper so I could trace around them. The last thing I did was cut out the paper templates and used masking tape to fit everything back together again and it worked really well. This was a really interesting new process I have learnt and am looking forward to practicing this more
Lesson Two
In the second lesson of mixed materials we practised joining plastazote in different ways using contact adhesive. We joined it flat together at the sides, at a ninety degree angle, at a ninety degree angle again but the sides had a bevel, and finally a curved piece and we had to pull it tightly together to maintain the curve. To do these I had to apply the thinest layer of the contact adhesive to both pieces of plastazote and let it dry out for about 1-2 minutes and then attach it together and it joined instantly so you have to use the join lines to make sure it lines up together perfectly. And the contact adhesive glue is the only thing that connects the material together really well and if you want to paint it you have to prime it first with a thinned out version of the adhesive and let it dry because then the paint with stick to the adhesive.
After this step I cut out armour piece templates and outlined them using a black market on a sheet of plastazote and then cut them out with a knife. The next step was to line everything up and glue it together using the same process with the contact adhesive. I did at one point stick two of the halves the wrong way round which you can see in one of the pictures but I used the scalpel to cut down the centre of the join and used more adhesive to stick them the right way round. Overall I'm very happy with how the armour piece turned out for my first go.