I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.
Interesting experimental process, thoroughly documented in photos and on video, from designer Maarten De Ceulaer. [via NOTCOT]
18 thoughts on “How-To: Cast A Bowl Between Two Balloons”
Raul Castrosays:
Very original manufacturing process. Beautiful reults!
Alisha Hausersays:
Very interesting! Some are quite pretty.
Anonymoussays:
Ingenious… Looks really nice, indeed.
Anonymoussays:
That was irony.
As an designer, should you not spend your time in making things more efficient (in all it means), more customer-friendly, more reliable, etc.?!
Instead of making “arty” bowls from balloons and concrete…
Just a suggestion.
I´m really sick of such content to be featured in diverse blogs. This is basic studies experimental stuff which countless design students all over the world will have experienced.
No need to mention or even to “feature”.
A fellow student “redesigned” the pantry of an airbus aircraft.
If you have ever seen the carcass of an airbus-aircraft, you will know that there are LOADS of restricting parameters, that you will have to deal with and YOU have to make it better.
Interesting, but… that´s “art” not more.
Sorry, but thats my very own opinion.
Keep on!
D. E.says:
“I´m really sick of such content to be featured in diverse blogs. This is basic studies experimental stuff which countless design students all over the world will have experienced.”
Countless design students, perhaps. But what about the rest of us, non-design students?
Or did I miss the transition where MAKE became “for design students and designers only”?
Anonymoussays:
“Or did I miss the transition where MAKE became “for design students and designers only”? ”
Sorry, that wasn´t my intention and maybe I overreacted a little.
And in fact, maybe I even like it in some way. Definitely a nice weekend project to do with your kids.
But what sets me up, is that s.o. (obviously a designer) pours coloured plaster into ballons and it´s somehow (and stylishly) presented like he just reinvented the wheel. But it does not solve any problem at all.
It´s such posts which make people believe “designers do funny things with colors n’stuff”.
Thats´s not the way I want to be considered as, after three years of training within industry and six years at university, always with a side job to make a living.
If you hopefully understand what I mean.
Did not want to offend anyone, not even the artist himself. Nice idea, nice results, nice how-to, and/but that´s it.
Tim Harrissays:
I will agree with confu on a couple accounts.
When I first saw the headline and the photos I thought, “Hey, that is awesome!”
Then I actually opened the article and perused the photos and I saw that it really does solve no problem. The essence of make is DIY, and from what I understand that DIY is supposed to be something useful. This is only art and nothing else. The results are very nice to look at but plaster of paris is not a rugged material. To make this for actual usage and not just art would be akin to buying paper bowls, punching holes in it (plaster is outrageously porous) and then rewashing them after each use.
Sean Michael Ragansays:
I agree with you, personally, that I prefer to make things that are
useful. But, TBH, we feature tons of projects on MAKE that are “just
for the fun of it.” What piqued my interest in this item was a
process I hadn’t seen before. I like projects and techniques that do
a lot, with a little, and I tend to choose them because I hope they’ll
inspire somebody to use the same process in a different way, or to
dream up inventive processes of their own.
Nice discussion here, thanks all.
Anonymoussays:
Thanks for your comments which actually relieved me a little.
After reading D.E.’s comment I somehow had a guilty conscience about posting my opinion “that drastical” in here.
Basically I was just concerned about this article to throw an unfavourable light on (educated) designers’ work and that got me a little upset.
Cause ist´s not “really” DIY, (Maarten De Ceulaer earns money with this), it´s not carefully thought out after all (, since he uses plaster instead of cement).
If s.o. else would have posted this technique somewhere, I would have thought “wow, that´s so cool”.
But he seems to be a “professional” designer with academical grade, so I think… “well, that´s… hmmm… okay… but… wtf… ” concerning the way it´s represented by Victor Hunt. That is IMHO kinda out of place.
To come back to the topic and to give some hopefully constructive criticism;
as mentionend by Tim Harris,
if you want to make “useable” bowls, use a cement mixture instead of plaster. This can be coloured as well and the processing is somehow similar. Wonder why a “designer” won´t think that far *cough*. …Nevermind…
Or use (Ultra) High Performance Concrete (google “UHPC”) which allows you to obtain an almost glazed or ceramic-like appearance of the surfaces (which is btw also completely[!] waterproof) without any further treatment.
And thanks to smr for posting this, as you see its´s quite inspiring ;)
I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.
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Very original manufacturing process. Beautiful reults!
Very interesting! Some are quite pretty.
Ingenious… Looks really nice, indeed.
That was irony.
As an designer, should you not spend your time in making things more efficient (in all it means), more customer-friendly, more reliable, etc.?!
Instead of making “arty” bowls from balloons and concrete…
Just a suggestion.
I´m really sick of such content to be featured in diverse blogs. This is basic studies experimental stuff which countless design students all over the world will have experienced.
No need to mention or even to “feature”.
A fellow student “redesigned” the pantry of an airbus aircraft.
If you have ever seen the carcass of an airbus-aircraft, you will know that there are LOADS of restricting parameters, that you will have to deal with and YOU have to make it better.
Interesting, but… that´s “art” not more.
Sorry, but thats my very own opinion.
Keep on!
“I´m really sick of such content to be featured in diverse blogs. This is basic studies experimental stuff which countless design students all over the world will have experienced.”
Countless design students, perhaps. But what about the rest of us, non-design students?
Or did I miss the transition where MAKE became “for design students and designers only”?
“Or did I miss the transition where MAKE became “for design students and designers only”? ”
Sorry, that wasn´t my intention and maybe I overreacted a little.
And in fact, maybe I even like it in some way. Definitely a nice weekend project to do with your kids.
But what sets me up, is that s.o. (obviously a designer) pours coloured plaster into ballons and it´s somehow (and stylishly) presented like he just reinvented the wheel. But it does not solve any problem at all.
It´s such posts which make people believe “designers do funny things with colors n’stuff”.
Thats´s not the way I want to be considered as, after three years of training within industry and six years at university, always with a side job to make a living.
If you hopefully understand what I mean.
Did not want to offend anyone, not even the artist himself. Nice idea, nice results, nice how-to, and/but that´s it.
I will agree with confu on a couple accounts.
When I first saw the headline and the photos I thought, “Hey, that is awesome!”
Then I actually opened the article and perused the photos and I saw that it really does solve no problem. The essence of make is DIY, and from what I understand that DIY is supposed to be something useful. This is only art and nothing else. The results are very nice to look at but plaster of paris is not a rugged material. To make this for actual usage and not just art would be akin to buying paper bowls, punching holes in it (plaster is outrageously porous) and then rewashing them after each use.
I agree with you, personally, that I prefer to make things that are
useful. But, TBH, we feature tons of projects on MAKE that are “just
for the fun of it.” What piqued my interest in this item was a
process I hadn’t seen before. I like projects and techniques that do
a lot, with a little, and I tend to choose them because I hope they’ll
inspire somebody to use the same process in a different way, or to
dream up inventive processes of their own.
Nice discussion here, thanks all.
Thanks for your comments which actually relieved me a little.
After reading D.E.’s comment I somehow had a guilty conscience about posting my opinion “that drastical” in here.
Basically I was just concerned about this article to throw an unfavourable light on (educated) designers’ work and that got me a little upset.
Cause ist´s not “really” DIY, (Maarten De Ceulaer earns money with this), it´s not carefully thought out after all (, since he uses plaster instead of cement).
If s.o. else would have posted this technique somewhere, I would have thought “wow, that´s so cool”.
But he seems to be a “professional” designer with academical grade, so I think… “well, that´s… hmmm… okay… but… wtf… ” concerning the way it´s represented by Victor Hunt. That is IMHO kinda out of place.
To come back to the topic and to give some hopefully constructive criticism;
as mentionend by Tim Harris,
if you want to make “useable” bowls, use a cement mixture instead of plaster. This can be coloured as well and the processing is somehow similar. Wonder why a “designer” won´t think that far *cough*. …Nevermind…
Or use (Ultra) High Performance Concrete (google “UHPC”) which allows you to obtain an almost glazed or ceramic-like appearance of the surfaces (which is btw also completely[!] waterproof) without any further treatment.
And thanks to smr for posting this, as you see its´s quite inspiring ;)
Regards, Confu