Final Project: Create a Functional Lamp

The Final Project! For the last project of the semester we were to create a functional lamp. The materials were of our own choosing. I used (again) Colgate toothpaste tube material on the inside to allow the the fabric to take form as well as have the light reflect off of the shiny material. I wanted a chandelier look to the lamp and chose to do two layers of fabric. Copper wire an small chain links hold together the entire structure. I had found an old brass lamp piece to wire together to give a vintage feel to the lamp. The best part...the jewels. They were going to be thrown away so what better place to put them than the lamp. I think they work great for decoration, and catching the the light to give an amber glow.

Metamorphosis Series: Snake into a Snake Skin Shoe

For this project we were to create a metamorphosis series out of any material of our choosing. it was to explore the idea of duality. Two things that can be opposites of each other or relate and compliment each other in some way. I chose to do a snake turing into s snake skin high heel. The material I used was a pink plastilina clay. It can not harden or be baked so it was pretty easy to mold to the shapes I needed. On top of the plastilina I used a mesh fabric to try and recreate the texture of snake skin. Clay is not exactly my medium, but it was interesting getting out of my comfort zone.

Recycled Materials: Crocheted Purse

This was the best project so far! I love using recycled materials. This purse is made completely out  of small strips of the material used for packaging Colgate tooth paste. As soon as I saw the material I knew if I cut the strips small enough I could crochet it. I actually had a lot of fun making this. I couldn't believe it came out the way it did. I had experimented first to see what would happen, but I am very pleased with the outcome. It's absolutely functional and can carry just about anything. For me I thought it would make a great tote bag for the beach because the sand would slide right through it. The handles are repurposed paint can handles that didn't overpower the purse.

Serial Planes: Volumetric Transformations

Serial Planes are units of form that represent planar sections of an overall volume or form...in English my project has one shape staying the same design, but progressing from small to big to small again. The shape I chose to create was a flower. Originally I had thought to use foam board seeing as we were not to use Bristol board on this project,but the foam board was not working out. I ended up using gutter guard for the actual shapes. It was light weight and flexible, and easy to cut. An unusual material, but I think it really worked out nicely. To make the actual structure I used a copper piece of wire to form into a shape of a vine. I wanted the project to stick with the floral theme and look natural. I chose two colors that can be seen from two ways. The serial plane can either look as if the flowers are growing down the vine, or up.

Polyhedral Structures

A polyhedron is a volumetric solid made by combining polygons. The shapes are constructed out of Bristol board and have been used throughout the first few assignments. By understanding the basic construction of polyhedrons, other structures can be created. The shapes (in order) are the Hexadron(a cube), the Octahedron(diamond), the Icosahedron, the Dodecahedron, and lastly the Tetrahedron( the pyramid).

Relief Shapes

This was the original first assignment of the course and we were to construct a relief design out of Bristol board. Foam board was used to create the base. The relief shape was two different versions of the same design seen from above. The oboe view could not be different from the other, but the sides could be. For my first I tried to keep the structure together and be simple and use very few pieces of Bristol board to fold into the shape. The second one I wanted a very open plan and have the design hang from small supports. Both were interesting to do and took quite a bit of time to plan. This assignment definitely made you think harder about a shape as a whole and how it looks from any view.

Archimedean Solid: Lantern with Face and Edge Treatment

        This solid was perhaps my favorite assignment so far. I finally stopped thinking about the shape as a solid and really looked to see what else it could be. Again we were to create another archimedean solid, but with face(surface), edge, or vertex treatment. We had to choose two of the three to design. I chose the surface and edge treatment. When I looked at the archimedean solid: the cuboctahedron I instantly saw a lantern. For the surface design I had created a lotus print that I transferred on to every side and cut out the petals giving a petal or spiked quality to the bristol board.

         I then had found a turquoise and gold fabric that I thought would look great with the edges. I had decided to cut the edges out, while still keeping the structure and place the fabric inside to create a simple, but elegant pattern on the outside. I did not want to go too over the top, but I had been using Indian lanterns as my reference and many had pieces of lamps in descending order and I chose to continue to do the same with my shape.

Kaleidocycles: The Closed Ring Of Six Pyramids

Like the invertible cube, the closed ring of six pyramids is contracted the same way. This on kaleidocycle is very easy to make. It does not require two pieces and forms very nice when fastened altogether. As before I used images of my own artwork, one done in black and white and the other in color. The only hard part about the closed ring was actually closing it. It looks put together and interesting when it bends, but because the shape is so tightly closed folding was a challenge at first, but then once you bend it a few times, it folds much easier.

Kaleidocycles: The Invertible Cube

A Kaleidocycle is a ring of an even number tetrahedrons, which flex and bend to show different sides of the pyramids with, usually with different illustrations. The one constructed above is an invertible cube. Depending on the way the cube is bended for different images will be shown. The cube is made out of bristol board with some of my printed artwork on it. This one, unlike some of the other kaleidocycles seemed to be able to fold much more easily and take on a diffent shape when bent.

Archimedean Solids: The Great Rhombicuboctahedron

The Rhombicuboctahedron is made up of 26 faces including squares, hexagons, and octagons.For this assignment we were to construct any complex archimedean solid of our choice out of bristol board and create a surface design to accentuate the unique shape. The design created was to relate to the surface area of the archimedeon solid. I wanted to accentuate these type of "X" patterns I created and also show shapes within a shape. I only chose to do a few colors so to not make the original shape appear crowded.