Bio-inspiration and Silicone casting

Bio-inspiration and Silicone casting
Published on Apr 05, 2020 by Jiaolyulu



bio-inspiration


Elephants can hear through their feet.
They’re sensing these underground vibrations through their feet. Seismic waves could travel from their toenails to the ear via bone conduction.
We can allow people to hear what elephant hear by using this technique. We can follow the structure of elephants and build a vibration earphone connecting our shoes and our ears. When we wear this, we can hear the sound of the surrounding environment and learn about the world in this way.

elephant
elephant





my silicone casting


I tried some at first and they all failed because the clay I bought has sulfur. Don’t buy this clay!!!

my wrong clay
The part that has connection with the clay never cures.

failure trial of silicone casting
Then I tried with cardboard to make the mold. It works. This is the final outcome. I did not take photos of its procedure because my hand is full of silicone at that time.
You can see my design in this picture.

silicone casting
silicone casting
And this is what it looks like when inflated.

silicone casting
silicone casting
silicone casting
Then I cut it into 3 parts. However I cut some bubbles and it create some new holes. I have to cover the holes with new silicones and this is what it looks like.

It seems that it has the power to open and close itself. The air would force the 3 channel to go into different directions.

silicone casting
I fount that without a 3d printer and a degas machine, it is so hard to do silicone casting to control its shape. So I chose a very simple silicone casting for my final.