The stencil had to be made to fit
the clay extruder so I made the segment to the maximum size it could be. I had
to cut out the shapes from a piece of aluminium, and drill holes in each
segment where I wanted there to be a hollowed space. I needed to make a
construction piece that will hold each shape in place and attach the main sheet
of aluminium together so that when the clay is pushed through the outline will
come through. I had to bend a piece of metal into place and solder 7 screws
onto it pointing down. 5 in the middle to hold the segments and one on each end
to hold the segments to the sheet, I then used bolts to hold it all together.
I tried and tested my stencil in the extruder
but I found many problems the base piece that holds the stencil in place kept
catching causing the extruding clay to tear. I couldn’t have made the stencil
any smaller as I couldn’t have the hollow chambers, I did try and create my own
base piece to hold my stencil, I cut a piece of MDF large enough to allow more
room for the extrusion, but the MDF just crushed under the pressure, to fix
this I would need a larger extruder and maybe a thicker stencil so that it has
more room to form into the shape. It has been a learning experience if I had
more time I would be able to experiment more, but I have learned a lot from the
making experience. Because I can’t make the light from extruding I have decided
to hand build a smaller version of my design still using my coloured clays.
