Bubble Side Bowl

The bubble side bowl is an average bowl size, however instead of horizontal layers of perspex I used vertical slices. It was designed to be a one part mould again, but soon became a two part mould as I decided to make it smooth on the inside as shown below. The dish will be quite shallow and it was designed for decoration and/or a small fruit bowl or storage dish. The slipcast colour of the piece is still unknown as I havent reached the point of testing colours, but it will take a shade from my Icy Colour Scheme. I've included a 3D rendering of the fruit parts I created for demonstrating my bowls uses.                                    

Bubble Fruit Bowl

My fruit bowl model was designed to be a one part drop out mould instead of extruding bubbles I decided to use bubbles that I would subtract from a solid bowl shape. I went through 26 models to get to my preferred aesthetic. The bowl is quite large and would be suitable as a decorative bowl or fruit bowl as demonstrated in my 3D rendering below. Ive also included a close up photograph of the inside of the bowl mould to show the high detail achieved using a perspex mould.


The bowl will be slipcast in a colour from my ice colour scheme inspired by ice, cooled lava, and snowy mountains.
Compared to the vases the bowl will be more interesting to slip cast as you will be able to see the inside of the layers. Im curious to see whether the straight edges will be lost to the slip, either way the inside of the bowl has just as much interest as the outside.

Vase Models

 The perspex models were made for the sole purpose of making a mould, but once they were assembled they became beautiful pieces in themselves which has inspired me to create lights using the same materials and shapes. I can be more adventurous with the shapes of the lights compared to the models for casting as it wont need to come out the mould. I want to experiment with blue perspex in keeping with my colour scheme for my ceramics of shades of ice. I might also incorporate wood for the contrast. 

Bubble Vase #2

After the sucess of the first vase mould, I decided to create a second vase to the shape of a conventional vase form as shown below, the bubbles are still randomly placed to avoid a perfectly symetrical design, bubbles form randomly so I wanted my designs to do so. I used a well known vase shape as a guide to attach the bubbles to, then hollowed out the model, this makes better use of the perspex and makes the model lighter, therefore easier to cast from in plaster.

Layered Bubble Vase #1

I researched into other natural formations such as lava and ice. When lava hits ice it reacts by creating bubbles in the lava, as seen on a YouTube video shown by Syracuse University. I also looked at the reaction caused when a volcano erupts under a frozen sea, it causes ice bubbles to form on the surface, the layering of the ice bubbles inspired me to use bubble shapes in my designs. 

I created a varied sized collection of layered bubbles in Solidworks, I then used them to assemble a vessel shape. I placed the bubbles around a cylindrical shape to keep some structure to the vessel but the bubbles have been assembled randomly. I then hollowed out the vessel.

The vase design I've produced was too large for the Universities 3D printer so I decided to make the model in slices using lasercut perspex. I made the model hollow to make the most of the perspex sheet. Each layer is 5mm thick and was assembled and glued with technicol, a perspex glue that dries clear.

I then used the model to create a 3 part plaster mould, 4 parts including the foot ring, the first model I made had a melted edge left from the lasercutter so when I tried to take it out the mould it got caught and took of some of the edges. This was a big problem so I lasercut the model again and scraped away the edge with a stanley knife and tried again. This time it came out perfectly.

Below is the vase design sheet and 3D rendering decorated with some poppy flowers.