… and I’m not just talking about those square watermelons you’ve seen before. While square watermelons are the fruit’s most famous shape in Japan (you know, apart from its natural round structure), they aren’t the only shapes found in glorious Nippon. If the sight of a weirdly-shaped melon confuses you, you should know that growing…
Always one for ingenuity, Eric Strebel puts his industrial design expertise to good use even with the simplest of tasks. This time, he’s been commissioned to produce 120 cast parts from a single solid master part. Seeing how costly it is to make solid parts, Strebel decides to take matters into his own hands and…
In Part I we went through the steps of creating a silicone mold. Now we are ready to cast the actual part. Are your ready for this?
When you work with an Industrial Designer (or as one) and you’re developing a physical product you want to bring to market, at some point you will probably have to make a functional model or a working prototype. There are many levels of possible mock-ups. Usually, in the later design phases or pre-production stages, you…
Molding (the manufacturing process, not the food spoilage one) has been around for a good six millennia, with a cast copper frog from 3200 B.C.E. being among the oldest surviving examples. The technique has adapted along with emergent technology throughout history, up to and including quick-set resins, CAD, and (as you saw here on SolidSmack…
It seems like we’re in no shortage of inspirational short maker films these days, and The Secret Story of Toys is the latest to catch our attention. Kansas City, Missouri-based filmmaker Anthony Ladesich of Mile Deep Films has documented the often-overlooked craft of toy sculpting and the processes behind making those toys real manufacturable products…much…