The NTU Christmas Fair!

My stall at the Christmas Fair selling leather necklaces, architectural silver rings and wood and leather Christmas cards.

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Selection of silver rings shapes inspired from previous 2nd year project based on industrial buildings. Prices ranging from £15 to £25.

Christmas cards made from handmade recycled paper, wood veneer, cork and leather.

Also a some pieces by Sabira Silcock silver necklaces with coloured fimo clay. Earings and rings.

... some cactus Christmas tree illustrated cards made by Anna Sheridan.  

Folded leather necklaces

I have been making these necklaces for the NTU Christmas Fair.  I have used a few different colours of leather sticking mainly to monochromatic colours.  Finished with a granite looking material.

Hacking an electric paper shredder

My aim in this task to use an old paper shredder and make it into something that was powered by hand and that could cut my plastic in pieces.

Step 1: Taking apart the shredder and removing the electrics and motor and all the casings.

I stripped away any components that were not needed for the use of hand-powering.

Step 2:  Above is the key element that was attached to the motor so therefore what makes the whole shredder blades turn.   So I made a key out of brass to fit this hexagon shape. 

Then riveted the key to a wooden handle.

Step 3:  Housing the shredder temporarily in a cardboard box.  The lid flaps of the box turned in made a double layer of cardboard and a stronger structure.  It also allowed me to cut into the sides at different depths so giving a strong support for both sides of the shredder.  I  had to accurately measure the sections to cut to make sure there was no movement and that it wouldn't fall out.

Step 4: I Attached the handle on the outside securing it with the shredders original Circlip. 

   A it works!  The only problem is that it cuts paper well but the blades are not sharp enough, or close enough to cut the plastic! Instead of cutting it perforates the HDPE and PP.   I then continue to sharpen the blades with a sharpening stone but it still doesn't cut.

My plastic extruding machines

2 extruding machines, 1 with a larger hole than the other.  Made from copper and brass tubes soldered

 together.  Including a stand.  Plastic is heated whilst inside and pushed down with a steel rod into some cool water. 

Extrusion tests.  The first one came out as a blob because I pushed the plastic out too fast,  

the experiments has a better shape with a smaller holed machine and at a steadier pressure.

Another book I read ......

This was a really useful book about many types of industrial

 plastic processing. Such as extrusion, injection moulding, pressure moulding, rotational moulding. Very simple diagrams!

Looking at inspiration for form and texture from industrial plastic machines themselves.  Here are some drawings I did.

Here I focused on the stack-able element, with the different pieces interacting 

with each other.  Also exploring simple industrial textures like spiral screw, indents and cross hatching.

This injection moulded form was interesting smooth

 corner less contours, machine like mould aesthetic.

Form us with love .....

 Looking through Wallpaper* magazine I came across these vases 

By design studio in Stockholm and Cosentino/ silestone.   Stackable vases made

 from marbles and stone.  I like how that put similar colours together.  Also a great video on the making to accompany.

 (Stills from the video)

Oil experiments

Here I experimented with melting plastic using vegetable oil ( same method used to melt chocolate) in a bowl submerged in boiling water.)  Got this idea from Thomas Thwaites 

toaster project book, where he used this method to make the plastic

 casing for his toaster.  

My new equipment ( 240 degree sugar thermometer, small saucepan) 

1st experiment : The silicone case flooded so let the plastic 

free in the oil. Going back to white as it cooled down

I used silicone cupcake holders from pound-land because silicone has a very 

high melting point (240 degrees)

Whereas HDPE, Polypropylene and polystyrene melt at around 130 degrees.

The plastic touching the casing is starting to melt

Quenching the whole mould in cool water to speed up the process.

A book I have read..

This is a great book from RCA graduate Thomas Thwaites, he makes a toaster completely for scratch traveling many many miles in the UK.   His method of using oil to heat plastic has given me ideas for my project.  

Pressure Moulding

Made these simple HDPE forms by putting a square of cylinder tube on to the metal disc

 in the wooden frame and heated whilst pushing down with the steel rod.  The

 mould is then quenched in cold water and pushed out. 

Other testing with waste products....

This is a test to see if recycled newspaper can be formed .

Liquidised newspaper, then put in moulds in the oven. 

Threads found in waste textiles bin mixed with powdered potato starch fibre and then put into moulds in the oven.  Also flattened in a panini maker.

Combining plastics

Here are some experiments using different types of plastic together to see if they fuse well.

HDPE and Polypropylene fuse well together , but polystyrene doesn't stick with the 

other plastics making the structure 

Where have I been getting my plastic from?

1.  I made a posters which I put p around the studio to ask the people around the studio to bring in their used plastics.

2. I asked the ladies in the Uni cafe to keep the milk bottles so I could come and collect them at the end of the day. They had alot!

3.There was Green Week at uni and they had been taking people plastic bag from them and swapping them with cotton bags, I got 2 bin bags full of plastic bags! 

4.  Hidden away at the top of the Mansfield road there is a place called playworks , a great place! Originally for kids to get hold of arts and crafts equipment has hindered of types of plastics in the form of milk bottles, plastic containers, bubble gum covers.....

Heat gun vs Plastic

Firstly sorting out different plastics washing and then cutting into pieces

PET bottle

HDPE milk bottle

I then made a simple mould by fly pressing aluminium and created feet by bending down the corners. I also made a tapered wooden presser.

With heat from the heat gun and pressure from the plug, I woulded the soft plastic into the mould.

HDPE plastic bag

HDPE milk bottle

All the plastics that worked with this method were PP (polypropelene), PS (polysyrene) and HDPE (high density polyethelene).  The plastic that melted down the best and created the smoothest surface was PP.  PS created a sort of crystal structure.