Different Sides of Leaves

Sketchbook Assignment: Drawings of leaves in contour, blind contour, negative space, and shading.

Structure with a side of Joints

In this project, we focused on the idea of structure using straws to support a 4"x4"x4" bristol board cube on a 8" base. We also looked at different ways on how to make a cube by articulating the edges with different types of joints. I decided to create my cube not using joints to connect, but connect/slide the tabs of the cube within each other. During critique, we gave one word of what our cube reminded us of, so looking at my cube, I automatically thought "puzzle." I took Kuniko's idea of making my cube look like an actually puzzle piece by using my base as the whole puzzle. I made a box using foam board and cut out the shape of the cube. My intentions with the straws were to make a crane like structure, so I looked at pictures of actually cranes and decided to base it off a bridge crane. In my first attempt, I built the structure that the straws held the cube from the bottom, but I wanted to make it look like the crane was pulling the cube out of the base. I decided to build a bridge crane out of the straws tied with yarn for sturdiness. Once I built it, I had a piece of foam connecting with the straws to hold the cube with an actually hook. It was critiqued to me that it would be more effectively if the cube was more integrated with the sturcture itself by wrapping the yarn coming off of the structure around the cube. So I took the yarn and wrapped it around the top straws so it would hold it at the top corners of the cube.

Intersection

In this project, we need to construct a container for a special object using the intersection of paper, fabric, and thread as our materials. I chose my glasses as my special object because I am blind as a bat, so I have to have them at ALL times. I had an idea of an open container to slip them in, but during my critique, it was brought to my attention that I would be competing with a well known idea with is the plastic or leather glasses case already. Rather than compete, I should come up with a container that might pertain to vision. I came up with the idea of an glasses book box since most people need their glasses to read. I constructed the frame from cardboard and covered it with fleece because it was a soft material that wouldn't scratch the lenses. My first container had the stitching in a white thread and only held one pair of glasses. During my critique, it was suggested that I would make the stitching more prominent for interest and that I would situate my glasses in the box that was more to scale. My final product shows that I used thicker yarn for the stitching and put a design on the top using a piece of paper with a suede fabric print on it. I added another place inside to add another pair of glasses to fit to scale. I also added Velcro to the flap and the tabs that held the glasses for easy opening.

Joinery of Nature

For our first project, we focused on the idea of joinery, but with natural artifacts. In order to join them, we needed to use a linear material such as string or thread. I didn't have an initial idea, but decided to pick up some items and try to match them up according to similarities or tried to find some contrasting elements that would work. I had a pine and a bush branch with a long piece of grass as the linear material. My concept was natural swing, but it didn't work out like i planned because the piece of grass came loose the way it was attached to the branch. So on the second time around, I choose to pick new materials, but keep my intention to find a natural item to join the other two together. I saw an interesting piece of bark laying on the ground under a oak tree. I happened to walk by a bush with yellow and green colors and instantly thought of the trees you would see on the side of a mountain during the change into the fall season. I decided to join them together with a piece of vine with the leaves still attached because it was flexible to tie and it tied in the "mountainous" theme I had as a concept.
The way that you might look at my item depends on what side is more interesting to you. From my class consensus, it looked better with the piece of branch in the back of the bark to contrast of the color.

OOOOOOO....PRREEETTTTIIIEEEE!!!!

My best friend went to the Georgia aquarium this summer and took some amazing pictures of the different animals. She takes better pictures than my anyways, but they angles and the opportunities that the animals gave her photograph looks like they came right out of National Geographic, I just wanted to share some pictures that I really loved with everyone else. Hope you enjoy!!
(If you take a look closely, you can see a small frog rested on the snake's back)

(Its quite amazing how she caught the bottom of the shark showing the sharp teeth!!! Never seen such a sight!!!)