Austin Chia, Interdisciplinary Sculpture, 2024
Project Overview
I am interested in Mycelium as a metaphor for how we, as humans, can reach out to and connect with one another. Therefore, I wanted to create a mycelium hat. Upon wearing the hat, the wearer is, plugged in, entangled with other wearers and other critters in the world.
Process
I decided to cast my head with plaster and then vacuum formed the plaster cast. The hat needed to be thick so that it would not crumble. To ensure the thickness, I made to plaster casts out of plaster bandage. The first is the size of my head, the second is about 3 inch bigger than the size of my head. I then vacuum formed both plaster cast to get two plastic moulds. I filled the larger plastic mould with the reishi composite and then compressed the reishi with the smaller plastic mould.
Note: please do not try vacuum forming on 3D prints as the heat from the plastic will usually melt the 3D print.
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