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Mold making, Silicone casting, Tattooing, 3D printing
Fusion 360, Silicone, Tattoo machine
[ January 2025 - Present ]
This project is ongoing, as is this page for it. Accompanying the series 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.