Zzzzz...

Roman Portable Bed

Roman Bed

Incan Bed

African Bed

Space Shuttle Bed

The Great Experiment

In my design studio we were given the opportunity to partake in the TerraCycle Inc Bottle Cap Contest. Our challenge is to create an artifact out of reused, recycled plastic bottle caps. We are to use only recycled materials in the production of this artifact, and our studio has also required that we relate the product to the theme of the book Radical Simplicity. My brainstorming really took off from ideas from the assigned reading. From the book, I found that, utilizing sensible design, I should consider primitive needs with modern uses. My design focus centralized around the ideas of privacy, sense of "individual space," security, and multifunction. From this point my thinking moved from objects such as screens, room dividers, and blinds to textiles and materials. What if we could replace existing plastics and man made fibers with plastic made from recycled plastic bottle caps? I didn't feel that bottle caps in their native form would do such an idea justice so I went about attempting to alter their form to produce a more workable medium. Naturally, my project began with some serious dumpster-diving. With the help of map gas, a cast iron skillet, and a metal putty spatula, I was able to melt the bottle caps into a gooey, putty-like substance and mold them into a unified mass. My initial goal was to create plastic tiles, but I had trouble controlling the consistency of width and color. Tiles would be ideal for garages and similar spaces, as they are water-proof and would be unaffected by grease and oil. After my overcooked tile folded into a gray omelet, I began to pick at the blob, forming a stringy, web-like material. Playing on this idea, I continued to pull continuous strands strong, coarse thread from the smoldering plastic blob. Recycled Plastic bottles are water-proof, durable, and long lasting, and would be great materials to replace olefin , nylon, and other man-made plastics in textiles. Made into thread, this could prove excellent, for shower curtains, shoes, and coats. The thread, while a very good starting point, is brittle in its inconsistent thickness, and flammable at very high temperatures. These are things I hope to improve upon, while contunuing my experimentation in means of production.

Class Spy

These are drawings of my Islam classmates interacting during class. Drawing candid sketches such as these can make a person feel very sneaky!

Ode to an Eggplant

The bulk of this half of the semester has been spent dissecting, contorting, and abstracting a fruit/ vegetable of our choice, mine being an eggplant. The project, titled Nature as Teacher, forced us away from recognizable images and into the realm of abstract. We began by creating drawings and sections of our subject, zooming in to find even the texture of its fibrous innards.
We then created patterns, which we then contorted using an everyday tool. After choosing tweezers, I pulled, twisted, and picked at my patterns, and added grey scale to add interest. From our final pattern, we were instructed to make a usable space with an interior. The first pattern below was my pattern of choice, from which I created the following models. Difficult as it was, I learned a great deal from this project!

Imagine all the people...

Scale figures- no matter how abstract- help a viewer determine the proportion and scale of images in a drawing. The best way to utilize scale figures is to create figures that are interacting within the space. The style figure I tend to draw looks like a wooden drawing model.

CAUTION: Drinking and Drawing Enforced

Sometimes the best inspiration for a good drawing comes from the simple comfort of, well, comfort. Our assignment for drawing was to get comfy with a drink and draw. A cozy seat with a hot cup of coffee and a muffin make up my recipe help me get "in the zone" to draw.

Never a "Board" Moment

In an effort to expose ourselves to the art of presentation boards, my drawing class compiled work focusing on specific campus buildings to create a well-organized, 2-D presentation. These boards included function diagrams, which offer specific information about a building (Public/Private spaces, Functions, etc,) 3"x3"drawings of the building's details, and the imitated style drawings. It is important to keep clean datums and a clear hierarchy in a presentation board.