Week 12 Class

My three materials for this week were Straws, Tin Foil and Napkins.  I also had thread, glue and tape.  I loosely based my model on my 3^rd collage.  The structure is very rigid and geometric and it builds upwards. I mainly used the straws and thread however I did include some tinfoil but chose to leave the napkins out; I did not feel that they would fit with my overall design.  I created the piece to hang, possibly on the body but not limited to be a piece of jewellery.  As evidenced in my photos, I liked the way that the work hung off other objects.

I had a lot of fun creating this piece.  I felt that it was the culmination of the skills that I had picked up throughout the course. The thread was a great discovery for me and it is definitely something that I will use again in the future.  In fact I have designed a piece for my core jewellery subject that used thread as its main aesthetic element.  This cross over between subjects has show the impact of this course and proved its worth.

Week 11 Class

I was unable to make it to this weeks class but I did manage to complete all of the work.  I created my collages and was particularly pleased with my 3^rd one.  I’m not sure why but I really like it.  It reminds me of a ladder or some other form of climbing structure.  Kind of a wonky scaffolding.

I also had a lot of fun playing with the photocopier.  This technique of playing with contrast and scale allowed me to produce some very interesting and distinct copies of my work.  Personally I like the dark and small photocopies.

Week 10 Class

I enjoyed the making processes of week 10.  The free creation of pieces.  I liked looking at different joining methods and how my pieces would come together.  I think a lot of it was based on rigidity and building up the form.  I found thread to be an excellent joining method when used in conjunction with toothpicks.  I will definitely use thread again.

The sketching part of this week was more of a challenge.  I have always struggled with isometric and perspective drawings.  Different planes and 3D images have never been my forte.  As a result I wasn’t able to complete this task the way that I would have liked but I definitely put my best effort in…even if that is hard to believe :S

During the “thinking about growth” part, I looked back at my construction process.  I immediately saw similarities between my pieces and other rigid frames that extend in a unidirectional way.  This lead me to think of scaffolding which is how I will focus my growth.

Week 9 Class

New Lecturer, Jacqui Chan, introduced us to her concepts of Small Object Ideation and her new direction for the remainder of the course. 

Started with some Sound Drawings, I found these a bit challenging however I feel like I did learn something and enjoyed the outcome.  The exercise revealed how I ‘saw’ certain sounds, a concept which I had never considered before.

We then considered our development process.  Here I was able to see that I still think like an industrial designer, not something to flaw just something interesting to keep in mind.  I believe that I can loosen up a lot more in Fine Arts and have more freedom and play.

My maquettes and collages were interesting to make.  I did not enjoy the task all that much.  I think that was mainly due to the fact that I do not think that my drawing were ‘good enough’.  We’ll see later on I guess….

 

Week 6 class

For our final construction week with Natalia we had one final project to complete over the course of the class.  The project ‘If the shoe doesn’t fit…’ was a very enjoyable project.  I enjoyed it because I didn’t think while making my pieces.  I simply started somewhere and then went from there.  Personally I am very happy with my two little creatures.  One of them is a wearable piece and both of them have good facial expressions.  It was interesting finding ways to reuse parts of the shoe and finding new functions for the ‘new’ pieces.     

Week 5 Class

I didn’t manage to make it to class this week however I did manage to catch up on the work.  I chose to use my wayfarer sunglasses, Reveal watch and Diesel fragrance as my three objects.  Starting with my sunglasses I created a picture that incorporated all three objects, using three different mediums while playing with scale.  I really enjoyed creating this piece as I was drawing things that I cared about.  I think that this created a personal connection to the drawing and made me want it to be good.

 



For the head piece I based it on a wizards hat.  It has a large peak and every side is used.  Similar to my pieces, this head piece looks quite organic and alien.

Week 4 Class

For week 4 we were told to bring in multiples of an object.  I chose to bring a packet of drinking straws.  From this packet of multiple objects we were told to create four forms.  We had to create one that was DENSE, one that was LIGHT/OPEN, one that was a VESSEL/CONTAINER and one that had an harmonious relationship with a mystery object (table tennis ball). 

My DENSE object was also my wearable piece. I interpreted dense as strong so I created a very rigid shape in the form of a triangle.  I filled in all the spaces to make a close, tight form.  This allowed no light penetration and solidified the piece. 

For my LIGHT/OPEN piece I decided to do the opposite of my DENSE piece.  With this, I made an object reminiscent of something organic.  My piece looked a lot like a tree.  It was also light in a literal sense as it was only made up of three straws, giving it a light weight.  With this piece I chose to try a different joining technique.  I didn’t use any glue, rather I only used the material itself to create the form.

My VESSEL/CONTAINER was quite a standard design. I create a tapered four-sided object however I only covered two sides.  This creates the illusion of a fully closed vessel when viewed from the front or back.  However when viewed in full it is clear to see that the vessel is completely functionally useless.

The HARMONIOUS form that I created incorporated the mystery object, a table tennis ball, and an object from a classmate, a rubber band.  I created a very dense object using many of the straws. I embedded the table tennis ball inside the form.  This created a ‘protective barrier’ for the ball and almost entirely hid it from being seen from the sides.

Bejeweled

Pretending to be an explorer in a distant, alien planet, I made 10 different jewels.  In my head my world was very colourful and organic.  There were lots of flowers and plants along with an abundance of water and wild life. I also saw it as ancient and untouched by technology.  Using this world as inspiration I created my ‘jewels’ so that they felt like they came from this alien, organic planet.

Week 2 Class

This week we completed a project based our chosen subject matters.  I chose to use Fiction as my inspiration, in particular Film Fiction.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I chose this topic because it allows me to use all of my favourite characters and fictitious worlds as inspiration.

We started the project by creating four collages using Seafood, Meat, Vegetarian and Desert as our themes.

I started the process focusing on the Meat collage, as I love meat.  I put more time and effort into this piece than any other and, truth be told, I do not like it very much.  I was going for something with similar properties to a nice, big, juicy wagyu beef steak.  I wanted it to be quite dense and chucky.  I also specifically chose images with dark colour, particularly deep browns.  This, I thought, would add to the ‘steak’ imagery. While I think that I created the piece to the specifications that I was hoping for, it did not turn out as well as I imagined. 

With desert I was aiming for something bright and colourful, reminiscent of a cake.  I chose to use brightly colour images and cut the images out using wavy, curved lines.  This, I felt, added to the ‘cake’ feel of the collage, as cakes are soft, similar to the lines.  I like how my desert turned out. It definitely captures what I was hoping to achieve so I believe that it was a success.

The vegetarian piece was the piece that I was dreading the most.  This is because I love meat so I generally don’t pay much attention or care much about vegetarian meals (I know that bad). Due to my apathetic attitude towards vego meals I decided to replicate that feeling in my collage.  Instead of cutting nice clean lines, I ripped the images out in an attempt to make the collage seem careless. I also left large spaces in-between the images, as if I didn’t care enough to make the collage whole and complete. Clearly the greens and other earthy colours were used to make the piece look vegetarian and I think that I communicated my view well with this piece.

The Seafood collage was the last collage that I did and the one that I like the most.  I didn’t have much time to make this piece so I rushed the design but though a lucky coincidence the piece turned out really well.  Similar to the desert, I used curved lines to help communicate my theme.  I was trying to show the seafood collage as a slimey, organic creation.  The colours also helped to communicate the nature of the dish.  Blues and greens obviously relate to the sea the splash of colour reminds people of bright garnishes or fish row.  The emanating tentacles coming from the main body creates a form similar to that of an octopus or squid, furthering the oceanic imagery.

Once we had completed the collages we started on ‘Kitchen Prep’ this involved manipulating found materials to create an interesting palate of ‘ingredients’

Finally we had a ‘Canapé Cook off’.  This task involved us creating six canapés using our collages and chosen subject matter as our inspiration.  While I enjoyed this task the most, I feel that my collages were best part of my creations.

Week 1 Class

So for our first lesson we went through the semester set up and general things like tools and materials. we then went on to select 5 adjectives and use them as inspiration for a few small creative projects.  I got the words: HOT, COLOURFUL, ANGULAR, POINTY and SOFT.  using these words as inspiration i created this beast

 

The rocket feet, aura of fire and warm/hot colours were how i chose to represent HOT.

Obviously the use of many colours created a COLOURFUL creation.

The sharp corners and lines made the beast look ANGULAR and POINTY,

While the rounded eyes and left appendage utilise curved lines to create a SOFT look.

We then used the five words and five pieces of paper to create a flat physical representation of each of the adjectives.  Finally we combined the five individual pieces of paper to create 3 3D forms.

This was my POINTY design.

A combination of my SOFT and COLOURFUL creations

ANGULAR and HOT

An experiment with both POINTY and SOFT/COLOURFUL

All five as 1 form

That was week 1. I enjoyed the class and feel that I got a reasonable taste of whats to come for the next 6 weeks.

fruity

So I really havent been keeping upto date with this blog for the past week but sitting here, at my desk, looking at a semi-rotten pear, i suddenly feel the urge to write about fruit.  I have always found fruit to be an excellent source of inspiration when designing and given last week's project i think that it's appropriate to delve into the world of the edible.

I reckon its got something to do with the symmetry and curves.  its just aesthetically pleasing which is why i like to use it as inspiration every now and then.
Pears. Peaches....all goood

ummm....

so i've been looking at harry potter and i think that I'll make a slight adjustment to my subject matter.  i think i'll look at fiction instead. that way i can use all of my favourite stories and characters for this project!

HP>Alco

so i just posted that i wanted to use alcohol as my inspiration for week 2's project but looking through my tumblr all i can see are harry potter posts...i think that it would be more fitting for me to use harry and his verse as my subject matter given how much i love the books and the world.  so i reckon thats it, i'l change to HP as my subject for week 2!

Week 2 Project Prep

So I figured that for this project I would look at something fun but also something that has a huge impact on our lives....Alcohol.  Whether or not you drink there is no way to escape the influence of the drug so everyone can relate to some extent.

Blog Woo

This is my first blog post for Small Object Ideation. I figured I'd start simple then build up...more posts to come!!!