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I'm struggling here. I'm trying to create some shapes in carboard to be thinly PM'd later. I'm not talking about simple boxes, but some pretty complex abstract and curved forms. For instance, a form loosely resembling a 3 sided candle flame in a slight breeze!
While I'm managing to cobble stuff together, I could really do with having an engineer's brain to cope with stresses etc. So, question is, can anyone point me in the direction of any useful websites that might give me some tips?
tia
D
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Do you REALLY want to get into something like this: http://www.lusas.com/case/civil/gormley.html ???
Just my opinion (got lots, just ask!), but if the stresses are too great, PM might not be the best choice of material?
The first thing that came to my mind when I read your "form loosely resembling a 3 sided candle flame in a slight breeze", I thought of aluminum tubing to create the basic form, then wrapped with wire.
These two materials are frequently used as armatures for all kinds of sculpture.
Then I reread and saw "cardboard". So.... hotglue your basic cardboard shape, THEN wrap with wire, and PM wire surface?
Right now, I am looking at an 8" long clear plastic pig bank (Dollar Store special), made from something like Pepsi liter bottle material, but more rigid. It's GOT to be good for SOMETHING in PM!
Sue
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Thanks for the link Sue. I *think* I'm looking forward to studying that (at length!!!). Although I'm not sure it's quite what I'm looking for. Maybe the cardboard boat builder sites are worth a look.
Anyway, I'll come clean about what I'm doing. It's actually an idea for an art competition in the autumn with a not inconsiderable prize!
The brief is for a piece that speaks of the spirit of the local area with an environmental theme.
http://www.cas.ohiou.edu/pols/walesinte … u_logo.jpg
That's the (old) logo of the locally strong political party. The party was founded locally and politics plays an important role here.
http://www.llyn.info/north/yr_eifl/index1.jpg
This three peaked mountain is one of the local landmarks.
And the shape I mentioned before could be a sail. So if I build 3 of these shapes, they suggest 3 sails, and the sea/sailing is a huge part of this area's economy both past and present. The 3 shapes give a nod towards the logo, the mountain, and the sea.
So that's my idea and using cardboard & papier mache fulfills the environmental part of the brief. Otherwise sheet steel would be my choice.
I'm a better modeller than construcor, so it was building these shapes with cardboard before finishing with PM that's the problem. I've made a few, but there must be a surefire way and not trusting to luck:)
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I haven't finished yet:)
I've built a handful of paper maquettes and one full sized shape (actually, it resembles a claw or a toucan's bill). But they seem to rely an awful lot on luck and masking tape. What I'd really like is a way to work it all out on paper so that I could build a series of interior strengthening ribs to strengthen it and distribute the stresses on the glue joints. At the moment I'm just sticking bits of cardboard all over the place and trusting to luck. When I look at the construction photos of cradboard boat and furniture makers I'm convinced they're privvy to a very simple fact that I haven't been able to figure out yet - a bit like discovering that you can find the relative minor for any key on a guitar by counting down four frets.
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I'm thinking RIBS.
Like here: http://sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm?terms … rom=Search
or the book Sculpting Dolls in Paperclay by Robert McKinley. His dolls are small, but you could do lifesized people or larger with his method and more cross-ribs.
And you don't have to slot them. Just hot-glue them in place. Fast.
Sue
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