Hybrid Skins

Hybrid Skins marries traditional slip casting methods with fiberglass to allow for the delicate and fragmented porcelain pieces to maintain form.

Hybrid Skins marries traditional slip casting methods with fiberglass reinforcement to allow for the delicate and fragmented porcelain pieces to maintain form. The pieces started off as 20×20 porcelain tiles, which had been cast from panels created with the use of a 6 axis industrial robot. The robot formed 5 unique sheet metal forms that then had plaster poured into them to be used as slip cast molds. This process uses a tool similar to a ball point pen to gradually deform the metal into the desired shape. After the casting and firing of the tiles, which often cracked and deformed during firing they had fiberglass reinforcement applied to the back side of the piece. The fiberglass helps maintain the desired form along with allowing light from LED lights pass through the cracks of the completed tiles.