Final Skin Videos

Final Skin Pictures

First Attempts

All cracked from over work or trying to get the indent and end edge to work together.

Construction- Successful Attempt

      

After 3 failed attempts I realised that the shape I needed to make wasn't so much of a valley but actually just a step down into the corner. This time instead of making an indent I used the mallet to flatten the corner and bowl the rest of the sheet. This created the first fold into the step. I shaped it using the shrinking machine and on the edge of the metal planishing form then finally bent the corner down to finish the shape. 

Construction- Fails

For my first 3 attempts I tried to make the valley in the rock by forming the over all bowl shape then denting it in with a mallet. while this to some extent worked for the valley, it made creating the edge fold down extremely difficult to achieve. As a result of trying to force it into a shape that wouldnt work, each time the metal cracked on the edge.

Construction- Planishing

To create the final required curve and to get rid of the shrinking marks I used a planishing hammer against various metal shapes. The bottom image is one of the cleaned up edges.

Construction- Shrinking

The bowl technique while good at maintaining a smooth surface, wouldnt bend the metal down enough (above). To solve this I instead used the shrinking machine which allowed for a much quicker molding of the metal to the required bowl shape. It however left unsightly damage to the metal which so I  tired to use it less and less each time I started a new skin.

Construction- Bowl Mold

I carved a bowl out of the top of a hebel block. This was quicker to carve then wood and gave me something to bash the metal into to create the bowl shape. The technique causes ripples to form in the sheet metal as seen above which when bashed flat, causes the metal to shrink, creating a smooth bowl shape. A second longer and shallower mold allows for the creation of the longer curve across the centre of the rock.

Construction- Planning

Using first failed skin to plan out the areas of stretching and shrinking (arrows- stretch, lines- shrink).
This allowed me to reshape the skin quicker each try.

Scale

I reduced the scale of the template slightly to make it a more manageable size both for bending the 

and for transportation

Template Assembly

Template Design

Rock Modeled in 123D Make

Arranging pieces so that grid pattern is on the face that needs to be shaped allowing for an even layout of height reference points (corner of squares) and a strong structure 

Final Capture

 

Initial Captures

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