Jesmonite
Jesmonite is an combination of a reactive mineral base and a pure water based acrylic resin. It is used to replicate the appearance and texture of any surface finish in a number of colours. During my years studying at Bedford college, I was able to work very close with the material and learn about its characteristics. The two types of Jesmonite I mainly used were AC100 and AC730.
During an early project, I was able to learn about adding pigments to Jesmonite.
'Jesmonite Pigments are aqueous dispersions compatible with Jesmonite composites'.
My patience was tested during this project as it took numerous trials and errors on finding the right colour palette for my product.
These candle holders are made from AC100, the time frame for the project was small therefore I decided to opt for the faster setting jesmonite whihc still gave me a strong outcome.
During my HNC, Jesmonite sent us a brief specalising in Home products. They were so impressed by our outcomes our college was feature on thier website.
After many design ideas and group critiques later, I decided to design kitchen unit handles.
I prefered to use AC730 - Granite, for this project as it gave a distinive finish to my product.
https://jesmonite.com/news/
Alongside this project, we were lucky enough to be able to work with a product photgrapher. She showed us the basics around a camera and the type of settings we would use for different products i.e different textures, finishes and sizes.
This came in very handy because as upcoming designers, we try to make cost cuts as much as we can. consequently knowing how to take strong images of my work would help significanlty.