Further vacuum form tests- the first one with the rope came out with less detail than I hoped, as the machine wasn’t hot enough, but the second one came out pretty much perfectly, so all I need to do to get my final cast is lay a sheet of wood or cardboard down so that I have a flat surface surrounding the rope. The brick and the drift wood are proving more difficult, however. as you can see, the undercuts on the brick make it impossible to get out of the cast without cutting, which ruins the piece, and the plastic gets sucked underneath the wood, sealing it in- meaning it also has to be cut free, ruining the cast. I spoke to the technicians and they suggested I fill the undercuts with clay or Plasticine so that the objects don’t get trapped in the plastic, so this will be the next thing I try.
vacuum forming
Vacuum Forming Process (First Attempt)
Photographs, Work in Progress Vacuum Forming Rope from the River Thames from Katherine Outten on Vimeo.
The following photographs are from my first attempt at vacuum forming. The first photo shows the rope and brick after being coated in the white plastic, the second and third are the plastic casts once I had removed the rope and brick from underneath, and the final photo is of the second cast made of the rope. The link above is to a video of the process of using the vacuum form machine, taken whilst making the second rope cast.
As mentioned in a previous post, the vacuum form machine had a lack of suction, so the casts (especially the second rope cast) were not as detailed as I had hoped. Once the machine is fixed I intend to redo these casts, and some others, to try and get as accurate casts as possible of the objects in white plastic. I may also experiment with other colours, to see how that changes things.
KAT OUTTEN 