Brandy Koch:Independent Study

When I finished Mr. Scott Sculpture class, I left feeling great, but knew I had only begun to touch the surface of his expertise. When he accepted my independent study I, of course was thrilled. We had left off with me trying to create an efficient way to reproduce a weapons form that was both cost, and time efficient. In the beginning I was cutting the shapes out of cardboard and layering them, the sculpture class allowed me to cut shapes out, be it the laser cutter or the CNC machine, also we experimented with the FDM printers but none of these proved to be a best final outcome, The CNC machine is very expensive depending on the material, and allows us to only do one piece at a time. The laser cutters can be done in multiples but still requires one to do a lot of glueing and assembling. The FDM again is very expensive, and can only produce one small item at a time. So..... This semester was spent 1/2 on the creation of a rubber mold, and plastic sampling. I was able to create a simple one step process that is cheap, quick, and easy. Best of all it can be done in my own home. I can use them for my pieces and they are even fun enough to be a hangtag by themselves, the techniques I learned from Mr. Scott can help me make the best molds and positives ever. The other half of the semester was used playing with the laser cutter. I got to cut 4 times on leather and twice on bunny. Through these series of tests I was able to find the settings I need for the type of leather Im working with, I was able to work out computer issues with my logos to get the best possible results. On top of all that, we were able to use the same gun molds to pump out 6 glass cast pieces as well, leaving my next chapter wide open.....