Plaster Casting, Designing from Nature
Taking inspiration from the features of a shell, I abstracted the essence of its form down into a simple 2D design, which was turned into a repeating pattern. Finally, the 2D pattern was turned 3D by carving the design into plaster.
3 Weeks
Course:
Design Lab, Spring 2024
Role:
Individual
Tools:
Plaster, silicon mold, wooden support, Adobe InDesign
Shell study: My shell was the melo shell found in the Indo-Pacific Ocean region.
STEP 1: 2D Designs
Creating 1.5” x 3” flat designs, then importing them into Adobe InDesign to create a 6x6 tile pattern based on different orientation and arrangements.
The pointed spiral was inspired by the
unique swirl found inside the shell.
While the majority of the shell’s surface
was round and smooth, the top rings
were coated with small spikes. The
triangular forms in a fibonnaci
composition aims to highlight this.
Design 3
This design tries to encapsulate the overall
feeling of the shell, inside and out. The shell
consists of both an extremely round body
and thin, sharp edges.
Final Design
With this final iteration, I experimented with
a middle tone. Working off of Design 3, I tried
to improve the diagonal relationship in the
pattern. I also wanted to abstract the form
even further, rather than capturing only
specific details from the shell.
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Final Pattern
STEP 2: 2D
The next challenge was experimenting how to dimensionalize by design. While I knew I would have different heights because of the gray areas in my design, I had the create freedom to decide how I wanted carve the slopes. Instead of carving straight down based on my design, I made concaves and convexes in the foam. I also tried reversing the highs and lows of my carving, representing the “inverted” version.
Pattern Layout Variations:
Final Piece Photoshoot: