Plastic Oval Flora

HDPE and ABS Fly Pressing

Figure 1 - Mbeje A. (2020). Oval Flora. Gilding Metal (Mould), ABS Plastic (left-side) and HDPE (right-side).

This is my third experimentation on fly pressing, but what I have noticed so far ABS Plastic has good characteristics on fly pressing, a smooth shiny surface as seen in figure 1 on the right side, and it's lighter than HDPE plastic. ABS plastic cools off very fast from the fly pressed mould and HDPE plastic takes time to cool off and also leaves dark lays inside the mould.

Figure 2 - Mbeje A. (2020). Oval Flora, ABS Plastic (right-side) and HDPE (left-side).

I tried another different technique of mixing ABS and HDPE plastic together to see if these two pieces of plastic will bond together when melted and fly pressed. it didn't happen due to the temperature heat of two plastics, HDPE melt easily and ABS plastic takes time for it to melt,  Therefore it's not possible to mix the two resin plastics together for fly pressing, due to the melting temperature resin of these two plastics as seen in figure 2.

I have learned a lot from this experimentation about plastics. I was able to learn different techniques of approaching this experiment, even if it was difficult for me at first but I was having an understanding of what plastic does when you fly press and also when you are compressing plastic to form a shape, what happens? Those were the things that I wanted to know from this experiment.

 

Plastic Butterfly

HDPE and ABS Fly Pressing

Figure 1 - Mbeje A. (2020). Geometric Butterfly Pendant (Mould), Gilding Metal

The casted mould didn't come out accurately as seen in Figure 1, this was caused by the printing structure of the ABS Plastic. The Geometric Butterfly mould was casted with gilding metal, which created problems for me when I was fly pressing the plastic. The mould lost shape from inside to due shrinkage and porosity.    

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Figure 2 - Mbeje A. (2020). Geometric Butterfly. ABS Plastic (left-side) and HDPE (right-side). 

My aim was to achieve the Geometric Butterfly design prototype by using different type of plastics material to fly press in order to achieve a smooth shiny surface from the mould.  I was able to achieve this finish by using the ABS plastic as seen in Figure 2 on the left side. I was struggling to achieve this from the HDPE plastic as seen on the right side in Figure 2. The plastic surface had a matte finish after being fly pressed, but this was caused by the porosity inside the mould which wasn't affecting the ABS plastic.

Signet Ring

Casting Process

Figure 1 - Mbeje A. 2020 Signet Ring. Blue Wax 

Figure 2 - Mbeje A. 2020 Signet Ring. Blue Wax (geometric shapes)

Figure 3 - Mbeje A. 2020 Signet Ring. Casted Ring Silver (geometric shapes)

 Figure 4 - Mbeje A. 2020 Signet Ring. Silver (Sandpaper Textured)

I am making a signet ring that is inspired by geometric shapes. I am still busy with the ring and I am planning on put resin as an alternative material in the project. The ring will be casted in silver.