Experiments

Ceramics

Using salt, cornstarch and a little water. With this mixture I had already failed a few times by using too much water or salt. I knew I only needed a little cornstarch as it is just used as a binder. When heated it becomes hard, using a microwave and heating for 45 seconds, it was successful.

I learned from the experience, and attempted to put string inside of the mixture to make something look more like a ring, as the string made it more sturdy when heated. I used a hot air gun to be able to control the heating process more.

These were more failed attempts with using cornstarch, salt and water. The first picture is after heating in a microwave, I used too much salt ( I assume ) which made it way too crumbly. This may also be because I needed more cornstarch.

The second picture I experimented with food colouring, with this I had to take into account to have a little less water. Again, I think I had used too much salt.

I attempted using plaster on both a round string that I will hang into salt water to see if it attaches, and also used ti to made a solid form.

We used a heat press to create this. We used the same solution of salt, cornstarch and water, which created a nice consistent texture.

A laser cutter was used to test how well it would be cut precisely.

This is a piece of string with plaster on the end. I wanted to see if the plaster was able to speed up the process of crystallisation. This is it after one day. As you can see it looks like it is working, however, the next day I realised the plaster was getting stripped away, leaving just the string.