Vacuum forming experiments | Text
These are images of some of the roughly 175 individual experiments of vacuum forming slabs of wet stoneware performed at the European Ceramic Work Centre, Netherlands in 2010. Wet slabs of Stoneware were formed on objects such as wheels, bicycles, typewriters, telephones, clocks and kitchen utensils.
Vacuum forming process images
Light and Dark Between the Lines | Text
Between the Lines is the product of a series of experiments investigating the vacuum forming process as applied to slabs. The slabs, silk screened with engobe were draped on an antique telephone and placed in a plastic bag from which the air was removed by vacuum. The purpose of the experiments was to embark upon a journey of invention; a journey with an open ended, optimistic outlook on consumption culture. The lines have a multitude of references from communication to lines drawn in the sand.
Between the Lines: process images | Text
These images document the process of the making of Dark and Light Between the Lines. The drawing of the ‘Lines’ and its inverse ‘Between the Lines’ were silk screened onto approximately 600, 4mm thick wet slabs of stoneware.
Each slab, as it reached the correct level of dryness, not too wet that the slabs get mangled or too dry and brittle, was draped over the telephone (found at a local thrift shop) . Once placed in the correct alignment on top of the telephone the slab is covered with a thin sheet of plastic. The telephone rests on the platten which is a small sheet of grooved plywood. The platten helps to distribute the air evenly when the whole thing is put into the vacuum bag. As soon as the slab has taken the form of the model (1-2 seconds) it can be removed from the bag. When the piece is dry enough it can be removed from the form and left to dry completely.
