FMP The First Samples 17th March

 The First Samples 17th March

One week from my PowerPoint and today was the first sample day. To be honest, I was looking forward to it and today was a good day. I had my resin samples now hardening with five different effects. I cant wait to see how they turn out tomorrow morning.

I was lucky to work out yesterday what I needed to do and how I could do it. With a lot of things to sample, I need to work as much as I can. I started with the resin samples so that I could have something to compare with the glass samples I'm hoping to do tomorrow.

I first had to make sure all the materials are there and I could get my samples done quickly. The main worry is that the resin is low at this late stage of the year, but there is enough for me to do my samples today. I started with cutting the strips of wood so that I could make my plastic mould to pour the resin into. I had to go into the scrap wood to find the suitable size for the samples. I didn't need the samples to be big, just enough to see how it would look in the locket and seeing as the locket would be small anyway, it would be better to have something the similar size so I could see how it would be if I was to use it.

So I cut the four pieces of wood out of a scrap piece, a similar width to what would be if I was to use it. They were then placed on to the heater to be vac formed with a piece of plastic. I then had to heat the plastic up for 30 seconds until it was soft and springy so that it could easily mould round the wood when the suction it turned on.

Once the plastic had reached the right heat, I then turned on the suction and waited for the plastic to cool while it was being held in place. I could see that the pieces of wood I had cut wasn't deep enough for the plastic to form round. What I hadn't taken into account was the distance between the two plates. The plate of metal that's holding the plastic in place is a lot higher, I didn't notice this at first because the other plate of metal is adjustable and I thought that I could move it up more to shorten the gap.

I then had to go back and find a deeper piece of wood that I could use, cut that and then reheat the plastic. Luckily this didn't take to long and I found a block of wood that would be perfect for the job. Cutting them the same size as the first pieces of wood, I tried reheating the plastic and forming the mould for the second time. Waiting another 30 seconds, I could then see that as soon as the suction was on, the plastic formed round the pieces making four clean moulds

With the moulds done, I could the start mixing up the resin. With 100ml of resin and 1ml of hardening solution, I then mixed it together and poured the mixture into each mould, careful not to spill any because of the nature of the liquid. After I poured each one, I then added the five different greens to the resin to test which would be the best one to use to get my emerald green glass.

Placing acetate into one of the moulds I had printed a green colour, I then added a little green text to one of the pieces to see if that would be a good way to add another part of Marriyah's personality to the locket because her love of books is a big part of her. In another I then added some green glass fragments to see how that would look if the glass and resin reacted in any way, or if it gave it a different look. On the same mould as the glass, I also put a piece of acrylic. I was wondering how that would look. A different way of adding words would be to cut small letters and encase them in resin to make up a word. It could be a word that means a lots to Marriyah, or a word that she feels sums up her personality.




The final two I added paint and ink. This was to see if I could get the exact green I wanted using either material. Sadly, I think I added a bit to much ink. It came out a bit to dark, but I'm hoping that once the light is on it, it would be a bit lighter. With my resin left to dry, I could then think about how I would fit each piece together.

It was my first time at making plastic moulds and I've learn a lot about the process. One thing would be to measure the distance between things before carrying on with the moulding, but I'm sure now I've done it once, I know that I won't do it again. That aside, I could then see that the time it takes to make a plastic mould is a fraction of the time of a plaster or clay one. This frees up time to be getting on with other things and also, if you make any mistakes you can easily and quickly remake the mould to the size or shape you want. The other upside is that the plastic mould is very accurate, fixing cleanly round the object you wish for and exact shape.

I'm just hoping that tomorrow I'll find some interesting results.