Design - Model Makers Bristol / Amalgam Model Making

Laser Engraving Service: Drummond + Hammett Cigar Box Guitar Components

July 10, 2015

As well as a complete design and fabrication service, we offer each process within our workshop - from CNC machining, to vacuum casting, to sculpting - as individual services. We recently provided our laser engraving service to local cigar box guitar makers Drummond + Hammett, etching their distinctive buffalo logo onto various surfaces and components of their instruments. Their exquisite, hand-finished craftsmanship is contrasted with subtle, precision-machined touches, as seen here featured on their 'ResoPhonic' guitar model. These guitars are stunning works of craftsmanship and passion - head to the Drummond + Hammett website to find out more.

Stainless Steel Sculpture for Blue Peter

June 11, 2015

Our sculpture of the BBC brand icon, the Blue Peter Galleon, is afloat in Bristol! When the BBC rang to ask us about making a sculpture of their iconic galleon which features on the Blue Peter badges, we were delighted to explore their options. As with most television props, the timing was tight to design and build it – so that filming could go ahead on schedule. We had a total of five days, from taking on the brief, to have the model ready for collection on the Monday by the Blue Peter presenter Radzi. The Blue Peter Galleon is easily recognised, so it was a challenging job to preserve the image and accurately re-produce it in 3D stainless steel. The background In conjunction with Avon Wildlife Trust, BBC Bristol has been developing a wildlife garden at the side of the Broadcasting House building on Whiteladies Road in Bristol –…

Make Your Mark with Branded Character Design

April 10, 2015

Designed and fabricated for Marketing Gloucester to coincide with the city’s summer festival season and a certain major sporting tournament, the 'Scrumpty' character is a combination of branding, character design and short-run manufacture, the bulk of which was handled in house; the character will be part of a competition for members of the public to design their own take on the character, to be stationed around the city in a 'Scrumpty Trail'. The client brief was to create a friendly character that combined Gloucester's 'Humpty Dumpty' folklore with the city's long-standing rugby heritage. After settling on a design, we used a specific set of processes for creating multiple copies. The final design was created as a digital model, which was CNC'd from a low-density rigid foam to fine tolerances. This was then hard-coated with a durable polyester resin and brought to a high finish by hand before being used to…

An overview of our CNC machining services

November 11, 2014

At Amalgam we provide a range of premier CNC machining services. This covers machining forms from client-supplied CAD, to being able to offer a complete end-to-end design and fabrication service. We can develop technical drawings based on conceptual images, machine the parts and assemble the structure, all completely in-house. We can also arrange for transportation and installation of larger projects, as we did with the range of EDF Energy interactives. Beyond simply being a cutting tool for sheet material, we are constantly developing new and better techniques for using the CNC within our workshop. In this article we’ll be going over some of these applications, which in turn are services we can offer our clients. Substructure Design and Fabrication This Rooftop Yurt was one of three constructed for the Timber Frame Company as an interlocking skeleton of ribs cut from sheets of plywood. The structure was then skinned with timber and copper creating a sealed environment. By…

Educational models by Amalgam on show in Bristol

October 22, 2014

Educational models clifton suspension bridge

Making an exhibition of ourselves? Bristol’s Architecture Centre, on the waterfront quay by the Arnolfini, is currently showing Desire Lines: Romance and Rationalism in Bridge Design until Sunday 16 November. The Centre gave us the brief to create a set of educational models with which visitors – especially children – could interact and experiment with types of bridge design. So, the exhibition features three bridge building kits, designed and constructed here in Amalgam’s workshop. The aim is to inspire visitors with the diversity of bridge building techniques, as well as provide an historical background as part of Bristol’s Bridge 150 celebrations. Unique to this display, the Architecture Centre and Amalgam devised a set of top trumps cards – to add a fun and memorable element into the exhibition display – as well as offering a bridge drawing competition for the junior visitors. Also on show, back in Bristol after several…

Architecture Exhibitions and Chimps

May 23, 2014

Installed at the Architecture Centre down on Bristol Waterfront, the Living City is an interactive architecture exhibition where an analogy is drawn between the city and a human body. Users are encouraged to think about what is needed to create a balanced, healthy urban environment. The centrepiece for this exhibition is a model we made for the Center for Sustainable Energy some time ago; in its original context the PlanLoCal model shows how various low carbon technologies can be installed in rural and urban settings. In its new role in this exhibition, the model features an interactive element, where users can place magnetic icons along the sides of the base to highlight key points within the 'city-body', such as energy, transport and recycling. The exhibition also features key documents and case studies, and runs until the 10th of August. You can see some images up on the Architecture Centre's Facebook page. Be…

Triggertrap Ada product prototype

March 5, 2014

We recently created a look-and-feel product prototype of the Triggertrap Ada, and the project has been back through our doors for some modifications before being vacuum cast in a new incarnation. Matt from Triggertrap goes into further detail in a video on their kickstarter page, which shows our technicians working away at preparing the master for casting. Our initial involvement was to create a look-and-feel prototype. This first object was a hand-finished object created using 3D printing processes, sparked and finished to look like the production component; models of this nature are useful as marketing tools. The vacuum casting process allows us to create a functional product prototype - a component with material properties much closer to those of the production object. This is useful for real-world condition testing but also allows the designers to iron out any further niggles in the design (if there are any). We…

Additive Manufacturing used in Bruce Munro Artworks

October 17, 2013

Additive Manufacturing is a media buzzword these days, newspapers and the media generally grab every opportunity to broadcast how 3D printing (The popular term for Additive Manufacturing) is revolutionising everything from fashion to domestic appliance servicing. Here at Amalgam we have been using a range of Additive Manufacturing processes for many years to help our clients realise their designs and have been both amused and frustrated by the sheer volume of (Largely inaccurate) coverage this "New" technology has been getting of late. One area where we can report that Additive Manufacturing has been used to great effect is in the artwork of Bruce Munro, best known for immersive large-scale light-based installations in Britain, the USA and beyond. Bruce and Amalgam have worked together on several projects in the past including Mettabhavana, conceptual piece conceived by Munro in the late 1990s which we built in model form using Stereolithography for the…

Medical Product Design by Amalgam featured in Develop 3D magazine

October 8, 2013

This medical product design blog, originally published some time ago, was withdrawn at the request of the inventor while negotiations and licensing discussions between various parties were under way. However, we can now republish in full as we are delighted to report that Tube Anchor is in production and receiving great feedback from the medical professionals using it. Our thanks to Prof Andrew Levy, inventor of the device. All at Caretechnica who managed the process of taking the prototype forward and last but not least to P3 Medical who are producing and distributing the final product. Tube Anchor is now a registered design: European Community Design Registration Number 002571026-0001 A medical product design developed at Amalgam features in the October issue of Develop 3D magazine. The Tube Anchor is a deceptively simple device that addresses the issue of securing tubes used in various intravenous therapies in such a way as to…

Holborne Museum ‘Ghosts in the Garden’ interactive props

August 5, 2013

Interactive props connect past with present Our interactive props for Sydney Gardens and the Ghosts in the Garden project, devised by Splash and Ripple, are soon to be decommissioned as the year-long event draws to a close. Visitors take a Georgian 'listening device' with them as they wander through the grounds. The device picks up the voices of historical Georgian 'ghosts', who describe events and facts about the Garden's past and heritage. There is still a week left to visit the Holborne Museum in Bath and enjoy the experience. The interactive prop boxes were handpainted to a strikingly realistic aged-mahogany finish by our props department, and dressed with clockwork gadgetry and sprocket work to create the effect of a ticking, whirring machine. To play the ghostly voices, each prop contained a Minirig, a portable, rechargeable speaker made in Bristol. More details on the interactive props can be…