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150 kilogram chocolate rhinoceros steals the show ...

150 kilogram chocolate rhinoceros steals the show at Smooth Festival of Chocolate

150 kilogram chocolate rhinoceros steals the show at Smooth Festival of Chocolate

Chocolate sculptor Dean Gibson and industrial designer Jon Pryer unveiled Bone Shaker, a 150 kilogram chocolate rhinoceros , at Smooth Festival of Chocolate in August.

The mechanical rhino was made completely from chocolate.

“Chocolate as a building material is really unforgiving, so it’s really risky,” Dean said.

Dean collaborated with fellow-TAFE teacher Jon Pryer to use technology to construct the sculpture.

The idea for Bone Shaker blossomed after Dean took a 3D computer assisted drawing course of Jon’s at TAFE NSW. Dean took the course with the hope of learning how to design and manufacture his own silicone chocolate moulds.

“I got pretty motivated by the course. I started to investigate some mechanical models for the CAD project and thought wow, nobody has done this in chocolate before,” Dean said.

The other half of the duo, Jon, teaches industrial design. He said the project was only made possible through collaboration.

“Neither of us would have done this on our own,” Jon said.

“When people from two different industries are working together you get that cross-pollination—this is where innovation happens.”

Dean and Jon used routing, 3D printing and woodwork machinery to construct the sculpture, which Dean said worked better, cleaner and more clinically than any of his previous sculptures.

Bone Shaker took 300 hours of work over five weeks to create.

After Smooth Festival of Chocolate, Dean and Jon used a food-grade chainsaw to cut the sculpture into three sections. Dean said the chainsaw, which runs on hazelnut oil, is his new “go-to” for cutting chocolate. The sculpture will remain in storage while Dean applies to the Guinness Book of Records.

In the classroom, Bone Shaker has inspired Jon to program a new design project for students studying the Diploma of Industrial Design at TAFE NSW in Newcastle.

“Our students are currently working on a chocolate bar project, introduced this year, which includes the design and manufacture of a vacuum form mould using commercial food-grade plastic,” Jon said.

“The project started with Dean taking them through a chocolate making course at Hamilton campus, so they could better understand the product.”

The project has also provided more than a dozen TAFE NSW patisserie apprentices with valuable experience working with Dean in the commercial bakery and patisserie kitchens at the Hamilton campus.

Bone Shaker is just the beginning for the duo. They have ambitions to collaborate more and apply this thinking in the way they teach students.


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