In India, we use Thermocol sheet for decoration on small scale, for family functions.
It’s widely available in stationary stores, easy to cut, mold and easy to stick.
Many people are in the professional business of creating Thermocol art articles. However, it’s always better to create the one yourself. It will give you the joy of creativity.
Any decorative piece like a carved temple can be created at home at much cheaper rate and as per your convenience.
Step 1:
Things needed
– Thermal Sheets – Different sheets depending upon the thickness
– 5-10 mm for carving,
– 15-24 mm for Structure,
– Thickest like 3cm for creating pillars
– Adhesive (like Fevicol in India)
– Cutter (a small knife)
– hot glue gun (earlier we used to use small metallic pins, but nowadays hot glue gun is very convenient)
– Few card paper sheets (to make templates of our design)
– color, Acrylic, or Distemper (do not use oil based colors)
– I attached a nail to soldering iron tip, once hot it cuts smoothly.
Step 2:
First, make a drawing of structure you want to make. You may want to use engineering drawing skills or some common sense with measurements.
Applied Pythagoras theorem, to get the exact measurements of triangles
Here I tried to create hexagonally shaped gazebo-like structure. But we have to consider the space constraint where the article was to be kept, so I ended up creating a rectangular hexagon.
The top has irregularly shaped triangles, need to apply formula carefully to get exact measures of each side.
Cut the Strips of 1 or 1.5 inch from medium thick Thermocol
. Stick as per your drawing with help of hot glue Create an outer frame of the structure.
Make provision for Pillers in this frame so that pillars can stand strong and lift the top structure.
To create a template of card paper, first cut the card in an exact shape of the Thermocol
piece.
Pillars are cut from thickest sheet,2 inches wide
Step 3:
To create a template of card paper, first cut the card in an exact shape of the Thermocol piece.
Draw design on paper. I have drawn designs based on the theme of wrought iron designs that are used in garden furniture, outdoors, Gazzabo, Galleries. You can use your own but see to it that final template will have a lot of empty spaces since it will serve as a template for our main designs.
Cut the empty spaces with a paper cutter. You have to be very patient while cutting the design. Maintain a balance between the thickness of design and pattern of design, the design should not be too much detailed and thin because later on the Thermocol piece should be able to bear its own weight.
Step 4:
Finally join everything together.
I used distemper and colored with an ordinary brush. Create dark shades because the color fades when dry.
I created paper flowers, paper rosettes to add a decorative value.
courtesy: instructables