rotoform: initial sketches

These are scans of the first couple of sketch compositions for the rotoform. The two concepts are based off of the golden ratio and seed pods respectively. I know its a bit contrived, or maybe cliché to find some inspiration from the golden ratio, but I feel confident that this will drive a very structured and meaningful response to the project statement. Also, my other proposal is more subjective, so it balances it out. Anyway, this project should be really fun, will post more as things progress!

new project: vessel/rotoform

We're starting on the vessel project which sounds utterly fantastic! The assignment:

In this project, students developed processes for generating objects with rotationally formed profiles. Through critical observation and experimentation, students created watertight, three-dimensional volumetric vessel forms that were inspired/informed by the plant form they contained.

Each vessel was required to contain and present the plant form in an appropriate and aesthetic way, and interface well with the contextual environment. This project focused on the formal qualities of sculptural objects and functional art.

I was assigned a dracaena plant (which is a nice leafy plant). More to come...

stool project (har har)

JUST finished this project. So we were given a ridiculously thin piece of poplar wood (dimensions were 10"x60"x<1"). On top of that, we could only have four pieces constructing the form with simple connection points (no punch-through cuts). The major limiting constraint was the fact that it had to be completely orthogonal; everything had to be ninety-degrees to each other. There were several approaches that our class took -- some people made a conventional stool. My room mate and I leaned towards the more architectural/space/light/shadow approach.

We had a couple mishaps during the course of this project -- a senior had some kick-back action on the table saw and nearly lost his finger, and one of my classmates seriously nicked his finger on the router. Fortunately, I didnt have any misgivings throughout (phew!)

flowform

The assignment was to create a spatula out of four cuts out of a piece of maple. The profs also allowed us to make secondary elements to accentuate certain components of the flowform. The first image contains a few of the foam iterations which were quick studies.

This has been, by far, my favorite project!

let there be light!

These are photos of an iteration/concept and final of my light from last year. I was initially set on creating a lampshade consisting of one continuous band of accordion-folded paper with simple mountain/valley folds throughout to give shape and direction. This was working beautifully but I found that there were limitations to the language of the form -- the material that I had to use (thin bristol paper) was not rigid enough to hold an exact form. In a couple of my concept proposals, I made a paper sculpture consisting of simple rectangular components which were manipulated with creases in order to give depth and movement. I followed this design through and finalized it with the last photo above. The hard edges made the shadows dynamic, and the resulting form had a vortex effect.

photography

Some of my favorite photos I've taken. Of course, these wouldn't have been possible without my lovely friends who volunteered! This reminds me, I haven't taken photos in a while...