Creating the Fish Body


Spirals in acrylic

Shapes cut from acrylic sheet

Shaping acrylic after being softened in oven
Shaped acrylic


Acrylic with Springs and String


Cutting out on laser cutter

Glueing srpings in place

Finished body


Other ways of connecting



Stringing together

String with knots to keep pieces spaced apart
Beads and beading wire


Springs with string threaded through

Mount Board with Book Binding Spring

Mount Board with Book Binding Spring


Spring from a Sketchbook






I tried to create a body using spirals. Once cut they were put into the oven to soften then pulled apart and held in place with pieces of wood until they had cooled. Once cooled they stayed in place.




















This took a bit of working out to create in illustrator, but was very effective when cut in acrylic. Unfortunately they were too stiff and needed some changes to the design and re-cutting. Self isolation stopped any further development of this idea.
















This was further development of my original idea that I created using laser cut corrugated cardboard.






















I liked the springs because it gives the pieces the ability to moved up, down and round. The springs that I used for the cardboard sere not strong enough for the acrylic, so I looked at alternatives. I tried stronger springs but they gave a lopsided finish between the slices.












This nylon cord has a little bit of stretch to  it. I threaded it through the holes at the top and bottom in one and left and right in the next. This gave a nice pivot movement, but the pieces moved around on the nylon, so easily went out of line.









I used the same nylon thread but added knots to stabile it. I liked this idea but felt the knots were messy, so I am going to try alternatives.










This didn't work because I threaded alternately. I think beads needs to use the same holes throughout.










Threading string through the springs didn't really offer anything different.














Lessons learnt by experimenting with other ways of building my fish, meant I was able to alter the design so that I could make it more successful.








I re-purposed a spring binder from a sketchbook to thread all the way through the body. This gave it more stability, but the level of movement I was looking for.





I am really happy with this form and would have liked to experiment with other materials. I managed to get some additional pieces cut in mount board and will use them to experiment with ways to attach different head and tails.

I would have like to have done the head and tail in a different direction to the body.
I will now look at other ways to give more shape to the head and tail.

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