Prototype experiments

My college project on shells is progressing quite well, I’ve just got quite a few different ideas that I want to try out. Mainly I want to work on creating a surface design for fabric that I can get digitally printed. I think it would be really exciting to make products out of fabric I have designed! However, this is a photo of something else entirely. It is a clear plastic shell which I made using an actual shell (given to me by a very kind lady on my course) mounted on a piece of wood and then put into a vacuum form machine. The vacuum former heats the plastic then when it has gone soft, you press the vacuum on, pull a lever so that the mould is pushed up into the plastic, which is then sucked around the mould by the vacuum. (Have a look at the home-made vacuum formers on You Tube to get a better idea of what I’m going on about!) To add colour I used an airbrush machine (kindly lent to me by my tutor!) filled with a mix of glass paint and white spirit to make it runny. I am pretty pleased with the results but I know that the trickiest part is still to come. My aim is to make the two plastic shell halves that I have into a small clutch bag. This will involve hinges and clasps and other stuff that I’m not sure how it’s going to work yet! Luckily, I like experimenting.