Assignment 1: The Bowl

This part of the assignment is to create an aluminium skin to adhere to the contours of a bowl.

1. Draw a circle on a piece of aluminium and use a snip to cut the circle out, and then use a marker to draw out the guidelines that guide me to shaping the bowl. 

2. Next, put the aluminium on the mould, start hitting around the edge of the circle with an egg-shaped nylon hammer, the edge of this piece of aluminium will get stretch and a piece of flat aluminium will starting to curve and become more like a bowl.

(Reminder: One thing has to be careful of when hitting the edge of this circle, tuck will appear during the process, to avoid the aluminium crack, you have to fix/ hit the tuck flat as soon as it appears.)

3. Once, the piece starts to form the bowl shape, you can start to hit the inner circle that being marked before. By doing this, the aluminium will start to shrink and create a greater curve/ depth that a bowl should look like.

(Reminder: Avoid hitting the same spot more than one time, you should keep hitting along the circle in order to get an even depth/ curve.)

4. Once, the bowl has shaped into the desired shape/ curve/ depth. You put it on the English wheel and giving the bowl a smoother and shiny finish.


(Reminder: Do not cross direction when using the English wheel as it can shrink the aluminium, and may result in uneven curve/ depth around the bowl.)

5. After finishing using the English wheel, inspect for any tucks/ uneven edges and put the bowl on a mushroom steel dome dolly and fix them by using the metal hammer hitting on them.

6. Inspect again by putting the bowl upside down on a table and  a piece of cardboard at the back, to see where are still uneven and making the spots.

7. Repeat step 5 again.

8. Repeat step 6 again until you are satisfied with the result. After that, roll the bowl on the English wheel gently to give a finally smooth and clear finish.

9. Finally, I used the WD-40 to clear off the marked line and then Done!