Alex's Design: Plastering

To be a successful designer and a successful problem solver, it's important to know about as many different materials and manufacturing processes as possible. By understanding how materials can be manipulated we are able to create exciting forms and create products that solve problems in more innovative and creative ways.

- 2-3 Sheets of High Impact Polystyrene

- Scissors

- Clear tape

- Ruler

- Pencil or Pen

- 2-3 Sheets of blank Paper

- 2-3 cups of water

- 2-4 cups of plaster powder

- 1 bucket

Put 1 high impact polystyrene sheet on a flat surface and then glue the blank sheet of paper (making sure the sides are aligned with each other.

Grab your ruler and place it on the bottom of your paper and then get a pencil to trace a mark on the 25cm line.

Rotate the high impact polystyrene and then place the ruler below the sheet of paper. For a quicker method put the 11cm mark on the corner of the paper and then trace with a pencil where the 1cm mark is (either way just trace the 11cm mark because that's our height of the product)

after leaving the measurement (25cm horizontally and 11cm vertically), using a ruler and pencil, draw a straight line across and up, making the lines meet.

Using scissors cut out the traced lines, leaving you with a 25cm x 11cm rectangle

Grab your second sheet of high impact polystyrene and glue a new sheet of blank paper (same with the rectangle).

using a ruler and pencil, (horizontally) trace a 5cm x 7 cm rectangle, repeat step 7 another 2 times leaving you with 3 5cm x 7cm rectangles that will be used for the core. Make sure that all three of them are side by side to save the high impact polystyrene for another step.

After finishing tracing out the 5cm x 7cm rectangles you will need to cut them. Use scissors for this process and make sure you cut all 3 of them without trimming the original size.

With the leftover high impact polystyrene, glue another blank sheet of paper on the corner of the high impact polystyrene.

Using a pencil and ruler, trace a 5cm sided triangle (all sides are even) with a ruler on the blank sheet of paper (make sure that you start from the corner of the paper).

after successfully tracing out the 5cm sided triangle, use scissors to cut out the traced lines on the high impact polystyrene.

Use the leftover high impact polystyrene and glue a blank sheet of paper on the corner of the high impact polystyrene and trace a 11cm x 11 cm square

After tracing, cut your 11cm x 11cm square

For those of you who want to add text to your product as I did, make sure to cut out 2-3 cm long for one letter because if it's too big it won't fit in the mold. And make sure to mirror the text or else it will be in reverse like my one.

Get cellar tape and tape all the edges as shown above. Make sure you have a triangular prism and a semicircle

Once all is taped put the triangular prism in the mold and prepare for your plastering phase.

Get 2-3 cups of water and 2-3 cups of plaster powder

Pour the water in the bucket first then add the powder

Get your spatula and stir the mixture until it feels viscous.

Get your mold and pour the mixture into the mold then add your core later.

Once your mold and core are in the mixture tape the core to make it stay in place then move the mold to another area to dry for 24.2 hours.

Once the product is dried, sandpaper the rough edges to make it feel smoother.

feel free to make any adjustments to make the product look and feel better.