Physical
Digital
Traditional
Production Design
Misc.
About
Mold making, Silicone casting, Tattooing, 3D printing
Fusion 360, Silicone, Tattoo machine
[ January 2025 - Present ]
Porcelain Objects: Silicone Bodies is my Senior Capstone project. This project is ongoing, as is this page for it. Accompanying the sculpture is a research paper detailing the art history basis for my project.
Inspired by the history and imagery of both porcelain and tattoo, I explore themes of identity and tradition as a Chinese American, as well as female beauty standards between the East and the West through the combination of these two mediums.
This is a link to my presentation slides which provide an overview of the project.
I modeled traditional porcelain vase shapes in Fusion 360 and created a purge mold–two halves with a central plug. The mold was FDM printed at La Guardia Studio. The printed mold interior was coated with XTC-3D resin to provide a smooth finish.
For the silicone, I used Smooth On’s Dragon Skin 20, dyed to resemble skin. The tattoing was done with a rotary machine and Mario’s Blue ink from Intenze.
Vase with Artist’s Childhood
(or Object no. 1)
Designed in the style of rouleau vases, featuring a wrap-around landscape of my hometown, Chapel Hill.
My childhood house I spent 15 years living in is pictures–a cookie-cutter unassuming suburban structure full of nostalgia.
The Old Well, an icon of the town and the university the life swirled aorund.
Loblolly and eastern white pine trees–the source of my yearly battle with allergies and the yellow layer of dust every spring–appear between mountains and clouds pulled from extant Chinese porcelain.
The Chinese hanzi characters are made up. I didn’t do well in Chinese Saturday school, despite growing up speaking Mandarin.
The artist’s mark at the bottom is from a stamp of my Chinese name I got in China years ago.
7 x 11.5 x 7 inches
William Morris Book Nook
Digital/ Fabrication, Design
Illustrator, Laser Cutting
[ February 2023 ]
For the course, Intro to Digi Fab, I was tasked with creating an object for a specific purpose using laser cutters and Illustrator. I had an odd space in my small room that I thought would be perfect as a little book nook.
I challenged myself to only use scrap/recycled material from the IMA shop’s junk shelf. To achieve the necessary height with the limited dimensions of the scrap wood and the laser cutter bed, I devised a design composed of three tiers: a bottom drawer, the middle case, and a clerestory top. As a decorative theme, I chose William Morris’ The Strawberry Thief pattern for the drawer front and clerestory cutouts.
The nook in it’s odd space
Finished piece
Cardboard prototype
Laser cutting the prototype
Initial visualization in Illustrator
Digital / Fabrication, Design
CNC, Fusion 360, Illustrator, Laser Cutting
[ April 2023 ]
The prompt from my Intro to Digi Fab class was to create something with a CNC using Autodesk Fusion 360. Inspired by art nouveau illustrations and the cover of Dear Old Dixie Moon, I created a 3D plaque dedicated to the moon accompanied by a poem by E.E. Cummings, Amores (III).
My goal for this project was to focus on aesthetics, with an emphasis on creating layers of depth. To achieve this, I created decorative shapes as both recesses and protrusions at varying depths. Laser cutting was used to engrave the letters, the face and hair, and the irises.
Original Cover
Post CNC / before laser cutting
Created with a ShopBot Desktop Max
10.25 x 5.5 x 0.75 inches