Thursday, July 16, 2009

Defender: Adding to the Respirators



I previously showed the mask with the partially finished respirators as pictured above. I knew I wanted to add more to them, but hadn't quite decided what yet. I was thinking of a coiling aluminum tube coming out the end and wrapping around the respirator, and I also considered having a thicker tubing connecting the two respirators together, perhaps with an elaborate filter that hung in front of the chest.




This is the Jello™ mold from which I started, and on the right the resin respirator after adding top and bottom and engraving a diamond pattern on it.



Ultimately I decided on going for a sea anemome look, or a cactus flower. I wanted an organic mechanical quality (or was it a mechanically organic quality?) I needed just to make the "flower" top piece. I cut the petals out of acrylic sheet, and molded and cast a sprayer nozzle for the center. On the left are the original acrylic and metal pieces, and on the right in blue are the cast resin parts after modification.



Here are the two resin pieces glued together, ready for molding. This will be cast in the same cold cast aluminum resin that I used for the respirators in the top photo. They will then be screwed onto the top, completing the anemone look.

2 comments:

  1. wow! what an amazing insight into your process! i would never have picked the metallic parts as being resin first, but then to be shaped from such mundane items as well... you have an amazing ability to see the potential in the most seemingly useless of everyday material. great work- very interesting!

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  2. You got my juices flowing for my respirator project. Resin casting is not something I have done before. Awesome!

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