Seashell and Mouse Forms

Making Seashell and Mouse forms for Design Lab

For April 22, 2021

I started out by doing some sketches of my chosen seashell to try to get an idea of the form and its details. Unlike many of the other shells it seems other people are using, mine is more of a scoop shape than a spiral, so I found it a bit difficult to break it down into more simple forms, since it already is pretty simple.

Shell Sketches

I found the contours of the lines on the surface help describe the form quite a bit, so I think that’s something I’ll want to at least imply in the models I do.

I started out doing a model in clay. At first, I tried to make it at a 1:1 scale of the real shell, but I found out pretty quickly that the clay doesn’t take kindly to holding its shape when it’s been sculpted that thin, so I moved to a smaller rendition.

I made it mostly by taking one piece of clay and moving it around, never really adding or taking away any material, which might have helped me refine the shape a bit more. I mainly focused on creating the correct overall shape and volume, getting some detail on the base of the shell where all of the layers seem to have extruded from, then added the stripes on the top of the shell, since I felt they were quite distinctive and important to describing the curve of the form.

In the end, it turned out like this! She’s not the prettiest, but she was a valiant first attempt, I think.

My clay shell is just shy of three inches wide, and my real shell is about four inches wide.

For April 27, 2021

The main points I got out of crit, distilled and mixed with my own conclusions, are as follows:

• the level of detail across the shell is inconsistent; the surface detailing is of a much higher fidelity than the rendering on the underside of the base
• the project is mainly focused around detail that’s important to understand the form. Per this idea, the ribbing on the shell likely isn’t that necessary, but the detail on the bottom of the base is.
• it’s important to work with the material rather than against it (an idea that I keep coming back to in this class)
• the clay shell isn’t quite accurate to the real shell — the curves aren’t smooth enough

Daphne said that I seemed to have a good idea of the shell in space, I just needed to put effort into manipulating the clay to accurately represent it.

Shell size for reference before I launch into my process

So, I launched into a redesign of my clay shell. I started off this time by making my version smaller than the real shell. This time around, I made the shell a bit thicker so it would hold its shape better, only making it flatter near the edges to imply the thinness of the scoop. I also pulled out my clay tools and spent a lot more time making the base of the shell detailed and accurate.

However, when I came back to it the next day, I noticed that the base of my clay shell was the same size as the real shell’s base, even though my shell was smaller. I considered starting over until I realized I could just extend the scoop of my clay version and reshape it to be a full-size replica with the correct proportions and details.

Midway through the clay shell — the bases are the same size on the real and the clay shell.

I did that by further thickening the scoop and adding more clay around the edges, then trimming them to rough shape with my knife and further refining the shape with my hands.

It was difficult to work with this shape, since the base of the shell protrudes further than the outer lip of the scoop, so every time I placed the shell concave-side-down, the base would get smushed. Since it’s just clay, I’ve simply been reshaping it each time I need to display the bottom side, but I’ve been storing it cup-side-up.

Once I had the larger shape down, I refined the details in the base, then added the “rings” along the top surface, and she was about done.

Base of the real shell compared to the clay one — note the clay shell is a bit smushed in this photo

The surface texture was a bit rougher on my version than on the real shell, but it’s a compromise I’m willing to make at the moment based on the inherent limitations of how much detail the clay can take on and the tools and time I have available to sculpt it with.

I then moved onto my paper shell, which was obligatorily much more abstracted than my clay shell. I decided I wanted to try paper because I realized I could use the layers of paper to emulate the ribbing of the shell, and because I was worried that trying to carve soap thin enough to do the scoop might result in it breaking.

This took a lot of trial and error, which took up a fair chunk of time and materials, but there’s not really any way to plan it out ahead of time. I tried with a few different skeletons, using from four to two “branches” emerging from the base with slots cut in the top of them to slide in curved pieces, which make up the top of the shell.

This was my first working proof of concept (with the prior versions in the background). After this, I decided to cut down to only two branches to ensure that all of the “rainbows” would fit in without problem.

After some more trial and error, I produced my first version of the paper shell:

The top profile isn’t quite right, but I think I can refine that. I’ll be making several changes for my next version of this: changing the shape of the scoop, adding more rainbows to fill out the form a bit more, and refining the shape of the base to more closely match reality. I’ll also be making some material and construction changes, like using a thicker cardstock for the base and branches and making the slots thinner to hold the rainbows more tightly. However, I think this was successful — people seem to read it as a seashell.

For April 29, 2021

I didn’t get the chance to do my second iteration of the paper shell. However, I have an idea in the works of how I’ll fix it:

• replace the structural components with a thicker matte board to improve stability
• cut slots thinner to hold rainbows tighter
• cut slots on different places on the rainbows rather than in the same place on each rainbow, to cause the flow of the shell to “shift” towards the direction it curves

I did, however, get started on my soap mouse today. I started with some mouse sketching to get an idea of the shape.

It’s a basic but quite elegant and beautiful form; I had a fun time drawing it and I noticed elements of this mouse that I don’t think I’ve ever noticed in the six or seven years that I’ve had it, like the raised ridge that holds the wheel in place and that the mouse isn’t actually symmetrical, but has the curve on the port side shifted slightly further back to better fit the contour of the thumb when you’re using the mouse with your right hand (which I do). Once I had a sense of the shape, I moved onto carving it out of soap.

I forgot to take process pictures because this day and frankly week as a whole as been a haze of doing four different projects at once, but I essentially started by figuring out my “limiting reactant”, so to speak, in the dimensions of my soap bar. In order to make the largest possible mouse with the correct proportions, I ended up cutting my rectangular bar of soap roughly in half, so I had a block a little over two inches long, an inch and a half wide, and one inch tall. Then, I drew my various flat views of the mouse on the block and started using some of my clay tools and my olfa knife to rough it out. I found it quite difficult to hack out the general shape without accidentally scraping off the ridge I was leaving behind to later carve into the mouse wheel. This is really my first experience with subtractive sculpture. As I worked, I spun the soap mouse around a lot and compared it to the real mouse from multiple angles to check that I was going in the right direction.

Once I’d gotten the rough shape mostly correct, I moved to using a needle tool and my x-acto knife to form the wheel of the mouse, then smoothed it out somewhat with my fingers and with the side of the needle tool — not enough to completely smudge out my cutting marks, but enough to differentiate the subtle contours of the mouse from the carving marks. Finally, I used the needle tool to carve in the divide between the left and right sides of the clicky part of the mouse, and I was about done.

Don’t talk to me or my son ever again

I’m very happy with how it turned out. Although it’s a bit lumpy, I think it’s a very accurate representation of the form. There are a few minor changes that I’d like to make, like perhaps smoothing out the concave contour of the sides and making the mouse ridge a touch more concave, but I’m glad I was able to get the proportions right, especially since I was working smaller than the real mouse.

For May 4, 2021

For today, I wanted to get my paper shell sorted the rest of the way and try to get a crack on my last mouse, which I decided to use clay for because the paper has been a bit of a pain to work with.

I decided to make my paper shell a bit larger this time to make it easier to work with. To fix it up, I first got some thicker paper to do the structural ribs so they would hold up and stay together a bit more, and I was careful to cut the slits quite tight so they’d hold onto the rainbows without just dropping them if they were turned at the wrong angle. I also cut more of them so the shell ribbing could be more dense.

I also wanted to add a bit of a curve to it so the rainbows didn’t just extend radially like a wifi symbol. To do that, I used the same construction technique, but I trimmed the showing edge of the rainbow to stick out further in to the center left of the shell (where the curve comes out the furthest) and closest in at the corners, and essentially offset the highest part of each rainbow as I went down the line to get a curving sort of form. I also better shaped the rainbows to get at the volume of the shell and the shape of it, especially as it reaches the outer edge.

I had to do and redo this to get it looking like I wanted it. This was my first attempt at the new technique. I felt the side looked pretty good but I felt the top silhouette wasn’t quite right, especially the part on the right side of the shell where it curves in towards the base:

(I made a cutout of the shape of the shell to check against as I was cutting and fitting new rainbows, which is what that is.)

So, I redid the outermost rainbows to try to get a better silhouette, and I think it came out pretty good the second time:

I think I want to trim some of the rainbows closer to the base a bit to make sure the silhouette of the side is a bit smoother, but I’m happy with how it came out.

For my clay mouse, I decided to make it at a 1:1 scale as my real mouse (though I suppose it could have been cute to make another little one). My technique was mostly to just take a chunk of clay and just sort of shape it with my tools and my hands, cutting it down until it was about the right shape, then I started smoothing it with my hands. I need to refine the shape a bit more, especially on the top ridge, and add a roller wheel, but I made more progress on it than I expected.

For May 6, 2021

For today, I finished my clay mouse and made refinements on everybody else.

For my clay shell, I rounded out some of the parts that had gotten flat from sitting in the same position for so long, as well as reshaped the outer rim of the shell to match the real one.

For my paper shell, I trimmed the rainbows that were sticking out too far and constructed a new base (what the structural ribs are stuck into) that extends wider on the sides so I had somewhere to tuck the corners of the rainbows into, so they don’t just flop out. I also trimmed down the corners to be smoother and less unruly.

For my soap mouse, I refined the curves on the sides and the front as well as made sure the “divot” on each side was far enough back. If I have time, I might do another soap version just for my own satisfaction.

For my clay mouse, I finished shaping it and added a roller wheel. I think it turned out nicely, even though the clay is nearly impossible to get smooth, but I had to just accept the inherent limitations of the material at a certain point.

Here they all are! I think they’re pretty much in their finished state. My next step will be taking nice photos of them, but here they are in the meantime.

The brotherhood of the shells

The mouseketeers

This project has been another interesting adventure in me discovering I like products more than I anticipated I would. It was cool getting to examine these objects in a much more detailed capacity than I ever have before, and I found the construction quite fun, especially the soap mouse. I think I might have to do more soap carving. I think it was also a cool exercise in learning to examine form with more than just visuals, but with more tactile forms of measurements like how it feels in my hands, which aren’t precise in a traditional sense, but have their own sense of precision to them. For example, I didn’t know until this project that the mouse I’ve had for six years isn’t exactly even on both sides. On the whole, it’s been a nice meditative project.

For May 10, 2021

Here are the final pictures of everything!