Clay Models – To Kiss or not to Kiss

What has been happening?

It has been a while since the last time I posted something about this project. Apart from being busy with work and my own education, my approach to this project has been to take it one step at a time

04/09/2016 China / Clay Models / Design Process

In July I signed up to a course at Dutch Molds to start with the first steps towards making complex plaster molds. Piet van der Sluis is the owner of Dutch Molds in Amsterdam. He has been making molds for

13/07/2016 China / Clay Models / Design Process

Exploring plaster mold-making

In the past few weeks I continued with my quest to search for production alternatives of plaster molds to make the kissing couples in The Netherlands. The purpose is to reduce initial production costs as much as possible. I already

17/04/2016 3D scanning and printing / Clay Models / Collaboration / Design Process / samples / Uncategorized

3D thinking

As we all know 3D printing has been growing and progressing in leaps and bounds in the past years. I was curious to find if it would be an option to 3D print this souvenir in porcelain at the famous

17/04/2016 Clay Models / Collaboration / Design Process / Inspiration / samples

The efforts it costs to get a cost price

Next to exploring stories about cultural similarities or differences in the multicultural Holland, finding out about the design – and the production process for it – has been challenging. One of the main purposes of this project is that the

13/02/2016 Clay Models / Design Process / samples / Tradition

From mold to final model

This project has its own pace and a mindful decision making process. Many proposals and ideas for the ‘making of ’ possibilities have agitated my creative mind up to the point of wanting to make this pieces of 180 cms

01/02/2016 China / Clay Models / Design Process

China: Work in progress

I have been working on the Chinese female. The shape is almost ready and I have started to create the Chinese male so I will have the first couple ready soon. I will combine this process with a visit to

30/10/2015 Clay Models / Design Process / First steps / samples

Discovering Form

It is time to start the design production of the larger pieces. The new models of the couples will be 35 cms high. This is a size that works well for me and easy transport too. I am using plastiline

22/05/2015 Clay Models / Design Process / samples

Samples are ready

During the past few weeks, I’ve invested quite some hours in detailing, sanding and painting and looking at images of the folkloric garments from each of the countries. I don’t have any knowledge about the technique to paint Delft Blue

22/05/2015 Clay Models / Design Process / Inspiration / Kissing / Tradition

Kiss

Next to the production of models, I’ve been doing research for the content of the project, learning a bit about Immigration History in the Netherlands and facts and figures about its present population. I am also discovering many interesting design

03/04/2015 Clay Models / Design Process

Waiting list

At this point I’ve had a line of potential clay figurines waiting for me to give them form and color. I’ve put them in a zip-lock bag so that they keep their moisture. I lined them up on my window

13/03/2015 Clay Models / First steps

Shrink gracefully…

Still working on the model making process; as I previously mentioned, the modeling clay I’ve used shrinks when it dries. For design purposes it is important to have some control that both pieces (male and female) shrink proportionately, so that

09/02/2015 Clay Models / First steps / Turkey

Hands-on, new rough sketches.

Making the first models was good to gain experience on how to work with modeling clay (the one that hardens up). This clay is not so user friendly, it shrinks while it dries and this leaves a rough texture. This

02/02/2015 Clay Models / Turkey

First Steps, materializing ideas.

This is how it all started, the first sketch model inspired in a female Turkish folkloric dress. I transferred this idea into modeling clay and as a next step a mold was made by Montagne Aardenwerkfabriek to slip cast it

Category: Clay Models