Seema Kamath
Get a Grip, DIY Design and Fabrication
Fall 2021
The project for this class was to improve upon the grip of an existing product.
Inspiration:
Going into this project I knew that I wanted to make a safer air hockey paddle grip that was also more ergonomic for my unique grip style shown below. Having a safety guard for flying pucks was really important to me because I broke the knuckle of my ring finger a few years ago from a puck that got hit in the air and hit the knuckle head on. I wanted this to be something that I could use rather than an idea that could be a full air hockey paddle that was unlikely to go to market; as a result I wanted it to be a grip that could be taken with me and placed on top of air hockey paddles at arcades. Another reason for it to be something that's placed on top is that the casting that will be done in the next project is probably not going to use the plastic used in air hockey paddles and so won't have the pucks bounce off the same.
Process Work:
Before working with the clay, I made a couple sketches of what I envisioned my improved grip would look like. I knew that beyoind having a shield for my fingers I would want a thumb rest as my thumb is basically horizontal but floating in midair when I grip the paddle and a support for my index finger as the middle of it has nothing underneath in the way I curl it. Thinking more about how I grip the paddle, I also thought an indent for my middle finger might be a good addition. Finally, to make the shield have a theme to it, I decided on a peacock feather/finger design.
Different stages of my grip are shown in the process mood board on the left. I started with just the clay as I didn't have an air hockey paddle to mold on top of yet. This was to get a better idea of how I would incorporate the supports. During this time, I realized that instead of an indent, a rest for the top part of my middle finger actually felt much more comfortable.
Once I had the paddle, I first made the general rounded shape with the index finger support. From there I made the thumb and middle finger rests and started to add feathers starting from the thumb side. The rests took a lot of refining to have a shape that was comfortable. Before making the connection to the middle finger rest, I tested the grip and saw that the shield was much too short and so added more clay to make it higher and more finger like. The approach of adding fingers like this wasn't very effective and led to them falling apart or off the other part of the grip even if I connected them some more as directly to the left.
As a result, I made the shield shape as one piece first and then attached it. With this new strategy, I tried to make it look more like a baseball glove. With this method I had to really heat the bottom and middle of the strip to be able to have it all take the curve of the paddle's lip which was easier in smaller chunks. As shown in the 3rd image on the bottom row of the mood board, the shield hadn't quite covered my hand fully so I did have to add an extra section. This connection was much smaller than the ones I was adding earlier and at this point I had already learned just how useful it was to heat the clay up really well.
Once I had the supports and shape the way I wanted it, I had to do a ton of smoothing so that the grip would not only look better but be stronger and less likely to fall apart. I tried using the rakes and metal smoothing tool but found too much clay was taken off and it was too rough. Using my fingers to smooth it out turned out to be the most effective. Even so it took quite a few hours to get it to be smooth enough especially with the curves and dips I had on top of the size; I had finger indents and nail marks reappearing because of my grip to smooth out other parts as well. Eventually though, my grip did become smooth and I'm happy with how it turned out in looks and most importantly feel and functionality.
Final Product:
Marker rendering of final grip to practice the skills
