Genk, Belgium – Designer Thomas Vailly has created The Creative Factory, a low-tech machine designed to create fluid and organic plastic shapes.
Vailly’s finished plastic items resemble vases or pedestals. He creates them by stretching a latex sheet with hooks and ropes attached to a rotational device that resembles a gyroscope. He then pours a fluid mixture into the latex, spins the device, and waits for the mixture to harden. Peeling back the latex reveals a finished shape.
Likening the latex sheets to numeric surfaces that normally enter the physical world via 3D modelling software, Vailly describes his project as a ‘dialogue between 3D-modelling, rapid prototyping, craftsmanship and design.’
The entire contraption looks like something from a Leonardo da Vinci sketch, but it produces contemporary objects with a digital feel. Achieving a random digital feel through authentic craft production, the project is an attention-grabbing take on our Different Design Every Time micro trend.