Karambole - paper made tableware

Karambole is a design project of mine I did in university. The way of approaching material and a creative idea by starting to work with the material paper instead of thinking and sketching first was very unnusual for me, but I learned a lot and I can only recommend it to you craftrs out their. Sometimes it's better to start testing the material first and sketch your experiences later on :)

So here we go - paper made tableware

by Kion Designs

Step 1: Experiments on Paper

Starting to get to know the material I soon went for the technique of unregular folding!
The surface created by this technique is very pleasing to me It's nice to look at and also to touch.
Afterwards I tried bending folded pieces of paper. This is a bit tricky, because using normal paper from your printer it's ok to bend it into a tube. The paper will adapt to it, but using thicker and stronger material, you will see the 'inner curve' starts to undulate! :(
Therefore I started cutting striped of thick paper, folding them only once and layered them around an round object. This way I still gained the wanted look, but using an easier way of crafting.

Step 2: Inspiration and Sketches

Pic 1: inspiration for 'folded paper'.

Pic 2-4: some sketches of mine done after trying the technique of bending and folding. The ideas of cups, bowls, plates and a lamp started to get real.

Step 3: Cups, Bowls, Plates

Using a regual cup(no handle) and a bigger vase as solid platforms to craft around them. All paper stripes need to be prepared with glue:

50% paste - 50% wood glue

This combinations makes sure to have a very strong and concret paper maché model after it is all dry again!!

The plate is not wraped, but plat and added with the unregular folded paper.

Step 4: Paper Made Tableware

Here is the finished paper made tableware.

I also created knife, fork and spoon + tablecloth.

The tablecloth was a fun thing to do considering folding a hugh piece of paper and then sewing it at the very sides :)

Step 5: Karambole

Step 6: From Paper to Porcelain

Although the projects idea was to start with paper I went further and tried to transport my models into porcelain!

Pic1: Creating a negativ form (cement) from a papermodel

Pic2: paper model removed - it's shape is visible on the inside of the cement blog.

Pic3: Filling in liquid porcelain up to the top. The cement will slowly take the water from the porcelain and so it sets from outside to inside.

Pic4: After having a thick enough wall for the model I outpoured the rest of liquid porcelain back into its container. The model needs to dry a bit now. It will shrink so you'll be able to remove it from the cement block negativ form.

Pic5: Some cups and bowls made from porcelain before burning process)