Shoe Stamps
Timeline: 7 weeks
Tools/ Manufacturing Processes: Silicone casting, water jet cutting, laser cutting, wood work, acrylic bending, metal bending
Materials: 1/4” plywood, 5052 aluminum sheet metal, Sortaclear 40 silicone, elastic, 3D printed tough PLA, 1/8” acrylic, no. 8 1” woodscrews
Project Description: Using manufacturing techniques in the Stanford Product Reaalization lab, I created platforms that strap to shoes and stamp as you walk.
Personal Meaning
I’m obsessed with wearable art that adorns the human body in order to reveal something about the human condition. In this project, I created shoe stamps: platforms that strapped to your shoe and left a message behind as you walked. In all of my courses this quarter, I have been exploring my identity and my heritage through a family heirloom book. This book contains the history of my Chinese family and our family Chinese poem. Each generation, the family members of that particular generation inherit the next word in the poem. For example, everyone in my generation (cousins and siblings) have the character 书 (book) in their Chinese name.
I grapple with my relationship to this book as an Asian American as I am not able to read the book in its entirety. Growing up in a mostly American household, I only learned simplified Chinese in a classroom setting, speaking only English at home. My family participates in Chinese traditions, but not in ways I see other immigrant parents engage with Chinese culture. Sometimes I feel very disconnected from my heritage, and sometimes I feel like it is a core part of my identity.
These shoe stamps represent my process and journey understanding this book. Both shoes stamp my two favorite sayings, one in English and one in Chinese. The left shoe stamp reads “A life lived for art is never a life wasted,” and the right shoe stamp reads “读万卷书不如行万里路,” which means “it’s better to walk 1000 miles than to read 1000 books.” As I walk in these shoe stamps, I leave behind my mark, experiences and identity that explores what it means to be Chinese and American at the same time.
Brainstorm
Final Solution
After considering 3D printing rubber with threads heat set into acrylic, wood block linoleum, and milling delrin, I decided to go with a silicone overmolding technique. I designed a mold made out of stacked plywood and 3D printed patterns since I didn’t have access to the CNC. To secure the silicone to the plywood platform, I designed a plugging system that interwove the two materials. The metal plate and plywood were secured together with wooden screws and the shoe secured to the entire shoe stamp with elastic straps.
Sequence of Operations
CAD Models
Manufacturing Process
