Tutorial: Blister
Firstly, select a piece of annealed aluminium that is at least 50% larger than your desired end shape. This will ensure that the your aluminium will not slip out of your form as your are hammering.
If your piece of aluminium is oversize, use a guillotine to trim it to the correct dimensions.
Next, sandwich the aluminium between the two identical pieces of your MDF form. To make sure all parts are secured, clamp all pieces together, drill through them and use a bolt to fix all the layers in place. This prevents the aluminium from slipping in the form and gives a sharper edge.
Find a nylon mallet that is similar to the ones pictured above. It is important that each end is rounded and the small end is around or less than 3cm in diameter. This will allow you to create the smaller indentations required at the edge of the form and the tail end of the blister.
Using the small side of the hammer begin to indent the outer edge of your blister.
Start moving from the outside edge, hammering around the profile of the shape, into the center.
Eventually you should be able to use the larger size of your hammer to create bigger indentations and smooth out the surface of the blister.
Because your mallet would be to large to fit into the tail end of the blister use anything that is small enough and strong enough to reach into this gap. Use a mallet to hit your found piece and create the small indentation by hammering in a sweeping motion across the tail section.
Once you are happy with the shape you've achieved, undo the bolts and remove the blister from the form.
If you have drilled through your sheet, there will be unsightly holes in the corners , you can easily trim these parts off using the guillotine similar to step two.
Final finished piece.
Reflection- Industrial design
Industrial design at it's core, is about creating products that can be produced on a mass scale. The items I have selected here range from easy to mass manufacture, to difficult to mass manufacture.
Reflection- Industrial design
Industrial design at it's core, is about creating products that can be produced on a mass scale. The items I have selected here range from easy to mass manufacture, to difficult to mass manufacture.
The first item a spoon from Norman Copenhagen. It's simple blistered shape can easily be mass produced using stamping methods. The second item, the Cape Pendant Light, is more difficult to produce than the spoon, its blistered shape can be achieved through mass manufacturing techniques like deep drawing. I have put my blister in the center of this spectrum because it was made without the use of mass manufacturing techniques. However it should be noted that if it were to be mass manufactured, it would be as easy as the spoon, using stamping. The next item is the Royce Tear-drop table lamp. This item, judging from its rough patina, looks to be made by hand. Therefore making this product on a mass scale would take a lot of time and effort, making it unsuitable for mass manufacturing. The final item, the Lockheed Lounge chair from Marc Newson is the final example on this spectrum. I have rated it as the most difficult to mass produce due to the high number of individual parts, most of which are very similar to the blister, bowl or torus. Not to mention the hundreds of rivets that hold each part in place.
Metal shaping can be applied to industrial design with a truly endless amount of possibilities. However an industrial designer must always understand the limitations that a material can have. Simple shapes such as spoons can be easy to achieve but as forms become more sculptural and complex so does the time and effort in manufacturing.
