Reflection

Reflection

BEIL0014 Digital Making has never been an option for me while selecting BEIL course for my 3rd year electives. Honestly, i chose this course because of this is the only course that is available to me as other course is full within a second. I was worried about it since i have zero handcrafting experience and digital modelling techniques either. 

Over the semester of studying BEIL0014 on metal shaping techniques and digital modelling such as 3D modelling and laser cutting, i found this course is the most fun and interesting course i have ever undertaken in my university life with the funniest tutors, shout out to Russell, Martin, Daniel and Gabe. All tutors are very open-minded, easy-going and innovative, giving the maximum freedom and flexibility to students allowing us to maximise our ideas and strengthen our handcrafting skills. 

Review:

Making the aluminium bowl has never be easy although it looks like the easiest one out of the five projects. Hammering the desired curve is very difficult due to the different pressure applied on the surface making it curve. For my bowl, i chose r125 at the beginning to be my curve, but as i mentioned it is difficult to make the desired curve in a control manner. 

Hammering the inner circle of the metal, the outside edge will pops up creating v shape, the edge will fold eventually if i keep on hammering the middle, therefore the edge needed to be treat as soon as possible prevent it folding and making irretracable result by ruining the edges. 

    

I have to constantly monitor the progress and make adjustment accordingly. With the help of different tools, i can put even pressure to the bowl and achieve a better result. It is essential to use tools that can eliminate the imperfection of handcrafting. As i am a amateur on metal shaping, making multiple bowl with the same curve is not easy, but that is what gives the uniqueness to metal shaping or handcrafted product. The bowl below is a handmade metal bowl which gives such a artistic feeling to it, and this is the uniqueness i was talking about. 

Comparing my work to Louis Cheung's work, his bowl is more refine and better than mine as he spent most of the time using the english wheel which gave the bowl a much smoother finish. 

Improvement:

For this project, i hammered from outer circle to inner centre which will result in offset from the centre of the bowl making a uneven bowl. And the pressure applied on the bowl was significantly uneven causing difficulties in hammering desired curve. If i get to start this project again, i will start in the middle of the bowl with a mallet and work myself to the outer circle. And enhancing my hammering skill with locking my shoulder and swing my elbow in a certain distance achieving same amount of force applying to the bowl. 

Conclusion:

At first, i didn't expect to learn much in this course since it is just hammering and hammering. However, i learnt about the metal hammering skills, how metal shape and form and the beauty of handcraft workmanship. I realised that metal shaping is a very precise work and unique, i will definitely try to learn different hand crafting skills in the future.