ROCK is a gardening tools brand who applies sand casting to manufacture all of its products. Sand casting associates to sand, dirt and rock. On the other hand, gardening also associates to dirt and rock. The brand is trying to make good tools to help people to deal with dirt. ROCK Trowel is the first product released by ROCK, entirely sand casted. Its handle and its blade are smoothly connected together to make sure that it does not cause any discomfort.
To make an ergonomic handle, blue foam rough models offer a quick way to test the size as well as the shape. In terms of the form, I adopt many organic shapes to take full advantage of sand casting, which ignores the undercut of the mold and able to cast the form that is hard to make by normal injection manufacturing process.
This is an one-piece casting, which means there is no need to assemble. Therefore, I’m able to design a smooth, curvilineal transition between the handle and the blade. Free of sharp edge also prevents people from getting any discomforts as they use it for a rather long time. The organic form of the handle not only provides a distinctive attribute but also serves a function of ventilation, which ensures the comfort as well.
To minimize the cost and the waste, the whole packaging is composed by only one piece of cardboard and two pieces of metal wires, no cap is equipped. However, by using the pre-cut line on it, it could be folded up and become a display stand, which also make Rock Trowel’s handle more accessible to hands.
