Thursday, 15 November 2007
Sunday, 11 November 2007
OjectAsTool #2 KettleLimescale
When a kettle is discarded it may still fully function. Limescale build-up can put people off using it and, with the incredibly cheap price of electric kettles, it seems easier to buy a new one than clean it. What if we could encourage limescale to grow, shaped into a new object around a custom formed heating element? As the kettle dies in the eye of the user they are left with a new object. Or they brake off the limescale cup that has grown inside and, keep the kettle in order to make another cup, so that they end up with a matching set.
One image shows a kettle with crushed Cuttle Fish added to the water. The other is the crushed Cuttle fish, I hoped that the Calcium (and if there's Magnesium to) in the Cuttle Fish would help speed up the formation of limescale when the kettle is used.
PotatoeStarchPlastic
Although potatoe, or rather starch, plastics are a viable material for replacing many consumer plastics derived from oil. It is not my intention by experimenting with it to do so. My exploration through objects as the design tool or mould for a new object requires materials; plaster is all very well for illustrating form but not practical in use.
The process and ingredients behind starch plastics are incredibly simple, this leaves the material open to everyone. Maybe my design could instruct a user on how to form something new from an object rather than just discard it.
ObjectsAsTools #1
I did these moulds to look at the potential of using obsolete objects as design tools, in this case formers. Different objects lend themselves to different processes, so the moulded toolbox has no undercuts and can form a perfect replication of the original mould.
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