Composites (Week 11)
The Assignment at hand for this week was to design and make a 3D mold over about 2ft in size and product fiber composite part in it.
After a lot of deliberation and discussions with my colleagues, I decided to use Paper Mache (news print paper soaked in water for about 48 hours) and Gypsum to re create the face of a Mannequin, which was lying out side Fablab CEPT.
This was a fun exercise for me as I have always wanted to make sculptures and this was just the beginning.
I started placing wet news print paper soaked in gypsum powder on the mannequin, skull and downwards.
Mid way, I decided to let it dry for some bit in the sun (roughly 90 minutes) and that was a big mistake. The composite mixture had started drying up, more so the gypsum and it had become impossible to place more on the mannequin.
At this point, I added more water to the mixture and mixed it for sometime. The news print paper, by now, had lost its smooth and become lumpy with the semi dried gypsum. However, much more manageable, as I could wring the water out to give it a clay-ey texture. Much more fun !
The mannequin was left to dry indoors this time, over the weekend, for about 36 hours. The mixture had turned hard as rock and looked pretty, thanks to the texture of the paper! Now was the time to remove the mask from the mannequin.
This is when I realized, I should have used a release to make the removal of the mask easier. Ended up using a dremmel to cut parts of the mask. The skull had to be pulled off in two pieces. However, I managed to get the front of the face intact and ‘almost’ complete.
Skull in two parts ! I love the texture of paper + gypsum.
The front of the face which doesnt have visible facial features. The wet part in the centre is the nose. It never dried because the mannequin’s nose had a hole :D
I am hoping to experiment with Wax + Fiber and terracotta + fiber in the coming few weeks, may be post fab academy.