I was tasked to design a Tea Light Candle Holder with inspiration gathered from the 50's, 60's and 70's furniture design. I was required to use any type of plastic and to make a suitable mold for the plastic. Three final prototypes were required, with different finishes, different materials or different colors.
This portfolio will show the original sketches, steps that were taken in making the final prototypes, videos of the casting process, as well as environmental renders. All research, references and ideas will be shown at the end of the portfolio.
The first photographs that will be seen is the drawing process that I used to gather ideas and to finalize my product.
Drawings:
The following photographs are the concept drawings that were used to find ideas and different designs.
These show the development of 3 ideas, where one was chosen as the final idea and design.
A final design was chosen and developed into multiple ideas. The chosen design was the cone design from the above development pages. This design was designed to have three different finishes, two with secondary material added and one in its original state.
The final sketch shows the final three projects on the same plane.
The process used for the prototypes will be shown next. Each prototype will be explained and information will be given on the material used for the prototypes.
The Aluminium Epoxy Mix Prototype:
This prototype was cast from Epoxy Cast with a sand casted base inserted in the bottom of the casted prototype.
The aluminium base was casted using a home built foundry.
The mold for the aluminium base was made from sand to give it a rough look and surface.
This photograph was taken after the aluminium was cast.
After the aluminium base was sanded down and made to fit perfectly, it was inserted into the mold. The Epoxy was cast and when I took the prototype out of the mold, the Epoxy had covered the aluminium base. This finish gives the looks of a rough bottom but when you feel it, it feels smooth. The final prototype gives a clear finish which allows the user to see the aluminium base from the top.
The Wood Epoxy Mix Prototype:
This prototype was cast from Epoxy Resin with a wooden end. The wood used for the back end of the Candle holder is made from Rose Wood. The wood piece was put inside the mold and then the Epoxy resin was cast to make sure they fuse in the solidifying process. The wood piece was turned on a wood lathe and was sanded to 1200 grid and then coated with fiberglass resin to seal and bring out the color of the Rose Wood.
The Original Epoxy Prototype:
This prototype shows the original design as just a plain Epoxy resin cast. This prototype was cast from Epoxy Resin. I made two of these with one that I doubled the catalyst in the mixture. As a result the Epoxy has not completely solidified, but instead is now a bendable plastic candle holder. Included is a picture of the original prototype with a lit candle in the night.
The molding process and the pattern process will be shown and explained next.
The patter was made from Maple Wood. It was sanded up to 1200 grid and was then covered with fibreglass resin to seal the wood to make sure the silicone from the mold did not stick and to take out any impurities for the mold making process. The pattern was cut and then sanded on a wood belt sander to get the cone shape I wanted. The front flat surface was cut with a bandsaw, the hole for the candle was drilled with a 46 mm wood drill bit.
The silicone mold made for this design is a two part mold. 2 kg of silicone was needed to make the mold. The mold stuck together, I had to cut the mold open which led to visual unappealing aspects, but the mold still worked well. The mold produced a very light split line in the final casts.
This a video to show how the Epoxy Resin was poured into the mold. I twisted the mold around to insure that there was not any air trapped inside the casting.
