This workshop explores a unique approach to volume, based on creating forms using only their surfaces. The focus is not on working with solid material, but on conceiving of volume as an envelope.

To do this, participants use a specific medium: PET, a plastic that comes in sheet form. Through various processes—including thermoforming, template-making, cutting, sanding, and polishing—they learn to shape and bring out three-dimensional forms.

Throughout the workshop, this practice allows participants to explore the concepts of line, surface, and volume, as well as to examine the relationship between empty and solid space, opacity, and transparency. It encourages the development of an approach that is both technical and sensitive, in search of a personal artistic language.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Define an approach that is both aesthetic and technical for designing a three-dimensional form.
• Create a plaster mold onto which to shape the PET.
• Shape PET using a thermoforming technique.
• Assemble various thermoformed parts.

The workshop will begin with a presentation by artists whose work relates to the technique being taught. Angélique Lefèvre, who will bring one or two of her own works to illustrate her points, will discuss her artistic approach as well as her choices of subjects, materials, and techniques.

The goal of the workshop is to teach techniques for working with PET in three dimensions, exploring the choice of cut lines, solid and hollow sections, transparencies, and matte effects.

Participants will then choose a form to create: a bust, a face, or an object. Based on this choice, they will receive guidance in defining a working method that is both aesthetic and technical.

The work relies on the use of plaster forms as a base for thermoforming. These plaster forms will be provided in advance to avoid drying time. However, participants may bring their own form if they have one. In addition to plaster, any heat-resistant material is suitable: stone, metal, wood, etc.

Lines are drawn on these supports based on the material’s maximum stretch capacity and aesthetic choices regarding the cutouts. Templates are then designed and cut out of the PET sheets.

The technique involves heating the templates using one or more heat guns to soften and stretch the material, giving it the desired shape.

Training Schedule

Day 1 – Afternoon

• Angélique Lefèvre introduces her discipline and discusses its artistic applications.
• Presentation of the various stages of the process.
• Selection of a sculptural form from among those proposed, if the participant has not brought one or more of their own.
• Brief overview of the process of taking an impression, creating a plaster and/or silicone mold, and casting the mold in plaster.
• As an example, participants may have the opportunity to take an impression and cast it from an object they have brought. A preliminary discussion will determine whether the proposed object can be worked on during the workshop.

Day 2 – Morning and Afternoon

• Continuation and completion of silicone impressions and plaster casts.
• Demonstration by Angélique Lefèvre of how to shape a PET template onto a support using one or more heat irons: principles of heating, cutting, stretching the material, and reducing flash (excess material).
• Participants’ first attempts at thermoforming.
• Each participant designs paper templates corresponding to their subject and cutting lines.

Day 3 – Morning and Afternoon

• Each participant works on thermoforming their chosen design.
• Learning how to assemble multiple thermoformed parts by soldering them together.

Day 4 – Morning and Afternoon

• Continuation and completion of individual projects.
• Option to start a second project.

Day 5 – Morning and Afternoon

• Finalizing and assembling the projects.
• Time for reflection and analysis of the work completed.
• Photographing works against a black background.
• Tidying up the studio.
• Diploma ceremony.

Angélique Lefèvre lives and works in a studio in Paris. Her work offers a poetic interpretation of the contemporary world, developed through a multi-stage process.

Trained in literature through a bachelor’s degree in humanities, she developed an interest in narratives and human stories. Her experience as a secondhand dealer further refined her perspective on objects: from the most ordinary to the most unique, all take on a special value over time.

“Memory, by distilling reality, transforms everything into a witness; neither beautiful nor ugly: simply precious.”

— Alain Blondel

She eventually trained as a patternmaker, where she learned to transform a flat surface into a three-dimensional form. This expertise has left a lasting mark on her artistic practice.

Her organdy sculptures caught the attention of major fashion houses. Under the direction of Leïla Menchari, she created objects for Hermès intended for the store windows at 24 Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

She was also commissioned by Van Cleef & Arpels, Dior, Sisley, and private collectors.

Another material has enriched her practice: PET. It was only natural for her to adopt this material, which is even more transparent than organdy and also comes in the form of flat sheets that must be shaped.

Her subjects remain the same: the history of humankind and their objects.

Upcycling also inspires her approach. Sometimes she creates a sculpture using recycled packaging from fruit or cakes. Two interpretations can then overlap: that of a food-related use, for example, where the raised symbols define the materials and their functions, and that of the human skull she has created from these trays produced through industrial thermoforming.

• Classrooms, multipurpose rooms, workshops with professional equipment
• Supply of materials
• Individual and collaborative work
• Workshop-based work
• Active participation and hands-on experimentation by participants are emphasized

• Group and personalized monitoring of assignments, regular check-ins
• Self-assessment of technical skills
• Group presentation
• Attendance sheet for each half-day
• Certificate of completion issued by Campus MaNa