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…We then removed the balloon sheath and poured wax over the entire creation acting as a kind of mortar that could subsequently be melted and expose the original cast bricks.

Growing up in the desert I developed an affinity towards cacti. Having these around now while living in the city reminds me of home. Generally I’ve found available planters to be fairly unimaginative and not able to complement the natural variety and monstrous beauty found in these types of plants so I wanted to develop my own planter using the building system Timon, Hyree, and I had worked on during this class in school so as to make the technique produce something more permanent and with utility. This took a long time to do and lots of speculating, but the break came when I figured out how to 3d-model forms that would act as balloons and expand to fill up a defined space through fiddling around with different computer softwares. I did this using a combination of a physics engine and soft-body modeling in Cinema 4D complemented with modeling in Rhino 3D which allowed for greater precision. Ultimately this proved very fruitful. I think to work in-between programs will lead to more unexpected forms that are harder to identify as the result of a particular modeling technique or particular software.

After this I 3d printed the planter parts and created a series of molds that would allow me to cast each brick or stone separately so as to create variation in the color patterns and then combine the stones into one finished object via a second cast. One stone remains separate from the whole and can thereby act as a removable drip-tray. A lot of people think using planters without drainage is ok, but while this might keep the plant alive for a while you’ll eventually experience root rot, especially with dry environment plants. I now make at least one or two of these planters every week, so if you’d like to purchase one please contact me.

Personal Website: http://www.a-k-n.net/