Tim Kent: Spring Quarter Post 2. Advanced Digital Sculpture 450

Picking up from post 1, after the wood was laminated together, I sent them to the laser cutter to have the slices cut.

I sliced it vertically, with the plane going from front to back. This allowed me to have a larger surface areas of slices to ultimately utilize the grain and geometric quality of the laminated wood.

Here is a picture of all the pieces cut, and taped up ready to be stained. The tape is to protect the wood from the stain and poly urethane, because wood glue only bonds raw wood surfaces to other raw wood.

Here is a picture of the aluminum strips I created to wrap around the edges of the wood. I marked out the width of the wood, and cut the strips on a stomp sheer.

The next step was to attach the aluminum sides. I did this by two applications. First I used Loctitie professional super glue to adhere the aluminum to the wood, and then they were secured in plain with stainless steel screws.

Using nail clippers, I cut the edges off, and tension from the screws was enough to hold them down.

Lastly, here are two pictures of the layers being glued together, after a few coats of natural finish stain by Minwax, and a few Polycrylic urethane coats:

As you can see from the photos, a core system was set up to insure all slices line up, but the holes were left off of the front and back layer so they would not be visible.

For more work and info on my artwork, check out my artist website: www.timkentart.com

Tim Kent

Tim Kent: Spring Quarter Post 1. Advanced Digital Sculpture 450

I am picking up this quarter where I left off last. In Sculpture 250 I really enjoyed learning about 3D Scanning, and serial slicing. This quarter, I started by refining a form I utilized last quarter. Here is the picture of the 3D foam Maquette from laster quarter(left), compared to the maquette I carved this quarter(right):

The intention was to refine the form, and make it more organic, asymmetrical and dynamic. 

The next part of the process was 3D scanning, then setting up the file to get laser cut.

During this time, I played around with layering different exotic and domestic woods together. I was a little dusty on planing, and glueing up wood, so I wanted to do some tests before I started on the pieces I would be creating to laser cut. Here is an example of a test piece:

The 4 layers of wood shown are Oak, Poplar, Poplar, then Redheart.

I was initially wanting to create the whole sculpture out of solid exotic woods, but upon researching the workability and toxicity of each species available, I found that to not be the best idea. I problem solved a lot until I found the best way to incorporate accents of exotic wood that would be easy/friendly to work with.

Here I have laminated Pine with Redheart:

Lastly, here is two final layers of laminated, planed, wood that were ready to be laser cut! The woods used are poplar, redheart, and pine.

For more work, including painting, sculptures, and mixed media, check out my artist website : www.timkentart.com

Tim Kent 

Tim Kent: Winter Quarter Post 3

     For the final I brought in a project I created from serial slicing, and one I created with the pepakura method. As mentioned before, I tried to bondo the chip board model, and it was taking an unpractical amount of time to sand it to the consistency I wanted. Processor Scott introduce me to Aqua Resin, which I used on E flute cardboard instead. The E flute model was much stronger and easier to work with than chip board. It took generous amounts of wet media without warping, which was nice. after a few layers, it was very structural. I sanded in between coats to keep brush work and build up in creases as minimal as I could. Here is a picture of the cardboard before and after Aqua Resin. I plan to and it flat and give it an industrial looking finish by dry brushing graphite over 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.

     This is the finished result of a Serial Slice project. I layered Plywood with masonite in order to contrast the colors. I used a belt sander, grinder, die0grinder, and orbital sander in order to give it its final shape. I finished the wood using Minwax Spray polyurethane only, and wet sanded in-between coats.  For such cheap material, I was really impressed with the results! I am excited to continue exploring this technique in Advanced digital sculpture class next quarter.

     For fun on my own I created another laser engraved image of the 3D model I scanned into the computer.  I start by doing a contour, and then finding an angle I like in perspective and using the draw2d command to capture it. However, this time I used the contour command around a polygonal version of it, which created a more geometric line quality. The 300lb water color paper used gives it a nice quality feel. 

     More images of the work posted here, as well as other art mediums including painting, mixed media, and replicas, can be found on my artist website: www.timkentart.com

Tim Kent