The end.....

Finally EVE is polished, light and standing (well 'hovering').

Her arms and head are held up by clear acrylic rods. The eyes are lit by an LED torch.

These images were taken at the New Blades 09 show in London. It was the first time EVE had been fully put together and working. I couldnt do it before because she needed the hole through the wall to put a metal bar into to hold her up.

Let there be lights

I used white LED christmas lights for in the body. I used theses because they are quick and safety tested in case I made any mistakes wiring EVE up myself.

The small hole near the top of EVE is for the metal pole that will hold her to a wall.

Time to paint

After back frosting the neck bowl it was attached to the body. Then everything was filled were needed and sanded lightly to smooth the whole surface.
I cut and access panel in the back of the body so I would be able to put the lights in.
Using the laser cutter I cut shapes for the neck lights and eyes and stuck them on the neck bowl and face panel.
I coated the head and body in a lot of pure white cellulose paint. I didnt use a lacquer to create the shine, instead I built up lots of layers of the paint and afterwards polished it up using Micromesh. This worked really well as this meant if a Eve got a slight scratch it could be touched up or polished out easily.
The face panel was sprayed black on the front (after masking the eyes) and backsprayed transluscent blue. The head was also lined with foil for when the lights are put in.

Body and Neck Bowl

After fitting the arm indents in the body, I lined the inside with foil so when the lights are put in the light will be reflected towards the neck.
The neck bowl was vacuum formed and cut to fit the neck. This stage was quite tricky as the neck hole isnt a perfect shape, it has some difficult angles.

Arms and body

After cutting the arms to shape I used them to get the arm placement on the body. I have cut the holes for the arms out of the body and have to fill the backs of the actual arms so then I can use them to get the inside shape to fill the body holes.

Arms

Using parts of the body mould I can get the shape for the arms by fibre glassing a section and cutting it to shape.

EVE has a body!

Have released the mould and now have a white body shell for EVE! Now I just have to clean up the seams and cut the arm holes.

White fibre glass

I have pigmented the gel coat white and used 2 layers of tissue fibre and one of thick fibre. It was quite difficult to reach to the end of the mould.

Clean Mould

The mould has been cleaned up and polished using mirror glaze (about 4 coats!) for the release agent. It is now ready to start fibre glassing the main shape.

Clean up the mould

Now I have the fibre glass mould I just need to clean it up as there was some bits of plaster stuck inside and then it will be polished again.

Full shell

The fibre glass is complete and I can now remove it from the plaster former.

Fibre glass

I have polished the surface with mirror glaze so the fibre glass will come away from the shape.
I have made a 3 part mould so that there isnt a chance of any undercuts trapping the plaster former.

Polished former










Fibre glass

Seal the plaster

After shaping the top of the body I have to seal it before I can fibre-glass it. For this I use a couple of layers of Shellac and lightly sand it to keep the shape smooth.

Neck form

For EVEs neck shape I have cut out the angle from the plaster form. Next I will mark and cut out the angle around the neck where it curves in at the top.

The head has also been cut and shaped.

Next step after plaster

The head piece has suvived the weekend! (I thought the former was going to fall apart because of the weight of the piece!)
Now im just going to fill in any gaps and lightly sand the surface to get a perfect finish.

More plaster

Have put on most of the plaster. The former works quite well though would probably scrape the dry plaster better if it was made from metal and could do with feeling more secure but the form doesn't move out of place so its fine for now.
The best way to stop the plaster shape from moving along the pole is to fill out the ends first. As the plaster dries it expands and so the form has to be rotated constantly for a while.

Plastered start

Have put the former together, cut the polystyrene contors and started the first lot of plaster with a hessium layer as well.

Head former

Have laser cut the head shape. Now im just going to build the former. Its going to work like a spit roaster with the plaster form on the pole that will rotate and the former shape will be fixed.

Head Start

Now the plaster work is done for the body I can make a start on the head.

The head shape doesn't have a flat edge like the body and the former will have to have an undercut. This makes the process difficult.

This time I am going to use a former that is static and rotate the actual head instead. By doing this I should be able to remove the bar holding the head to clean the former if I need to.



Once again I will be using polystyrene to bulk out the main shape.

I have a egg!

After the initial plaster layer yesterday I have built the plaster up more and have a smooth egg shape that will become EVEs body. I found the best way to use the former was to take it off and clean it and the base after each batch of plaster had been put on and turned. Idealy the process would have been easier with a team of people, one to mix plaster, one to apply it, one to rotate the former and another to scrape fallen plaster off the base.

The plaster that ran off the form kept on going under the former base, if I didnt clean it regularly the plaster would have built up and raised the former up.

The rotating former technique worked really well. The plaster was easily built up quickly and gave a good smooth result that will only need a small amount of hand finishing.

First layer of plaster was to make sure the hessium was well covered.

Bulk shape starts to form, the former shape wasnt touching the plaster yet.

Former starts to scrape the plaster into a smoother shape.

Just the last few gaps to fill.

Finished shape. Once fully dry I will sand it lightly to get a really smooth finish.

Layers

Yesterday I used layers of hessium and plaster to bulk out the form. Today I have put on one last single layer of hessium and am about to start putting the outer layer of plaster on using the former.

Former formed!

Stuck the polystyrene to the base on the metal rod. Filled larger gaps with plaster, covered in a layer of woven hessium and glued down. The former was attatched to the moving base and secured with brackets to make it stronger.

Is it ready yet?

Finally the pieces for the plaster shaper are cut and can be assembled along with the polystyrene contours.

Forming the former....

The former I will use to make the plaster shape has been drawn up and laser cut. I have added a circular base for the polystyrene and a base for the former so it will follow the shape better.

In circles...

I needed the polystyrene sections to be circular. By using a piece of wood and dowel I could spin the sections and cut using the hot wire. This made it easy to get a good shape quickly. Next the pieces can be stuck together over the pole that will be used to make the plaster shaper. The acrylic shaper that will push the plaster just needs to be secured into place and then I can start plastering the shape.

Back on the laser cutter

Have cut the former shapes for EVEs body on the laser cutter from acrylic and cut the stacks of polystyrene that will bulk out the shape for the plaster to go on.

EVE gets digital

To get the contors ready to make the larger shape for the plaster I drew the shape of EVE on Rhino. Using this I will laser cut the shape out of acrylic.

Head test...

Using the same technique as the body test, I tried a full shape head test. It worked fairly well ad thanks to this test I should be able to get a nice even shape to the head. I also have found out how I need to better secure the center pieces as they had a tendancy to spin.