IAR 101 Container Project

This container project involved 12 wood sticks of our choosing, including a binding agent and some papers. Since there were many varieties of sticks to choose from the possibilities were limitless for this project. We were suppose to combine the 3 materials together and form what would seems to be fitting for all materials involved. After some considerations and pick and choose, I decided to go with bamboo, since it was stable and would give good balance to whatever I might do in my process. But that wasn't the hard part it seems, as finding a place with bamboo seems to be more of a difficult task. After a while of searching, I finally found a spot filled with bamboos on a corner of a street. It had to be some kind of funny joke as an Asian guy was just walking up to the field of bamboo and chopping it down like they do in Vietnam (that was a joke.. I have no idea what they do in Vietnam). But finally, I got my sticks to work with, more than I needed at the time. But as time went on my project started to take a turn for the better.

It was the poor construction of the bamboo building that I knew I had to go back and make things better again, not just for me but for the bamboo's sake as well. I felt that if I was going to cut down so many bamboos for work with, I had better make it into something worth the destruction of them. The initial progress was so horrible, I don't even want to put up an image of it, but I'm pretty sure the image is still clear to a few in their own mind (the professors). Anyways, I decided on a new approach and was inspired by a wavy bench design (it was actual design as a ceiling but I suggested it to be a bench to them so I ended up using the idea instead). I knew what I wanted to do and so the process wasn't that difficult.

The first one I made actually turned out pretty well, as I took my time and did all the planning step by step. This was how it ended up looking like.



In the first few days that this project was completed, the colors on the bamboo were gorgeous. But as days passed by, it was drying up and dying. The colors lost its natural texture.

I also made a smaller model to test color strips of paper I wanted to add on to it as well but the professor said it didn't needed the extra attention, but here are the photos:






I tested out a couple of different shades of green paper to match up with the texture of the bamboo colors and wanted to see which colors would do best. But turns out plain white was the best choice :)

I also made a simple construction of another thing for fun. It took me literally 2 minutes but a lot of people who walks by my cubicle actually noticed it and liked it.





The major things that were pointed out to me about my project was how the paper should grace all of the bamboos more, instead of having some tips pointing out if you look closely enough. Portions of the bamboo wasn't being attached fully to the paper so the look might change if I had done it over again but this time cut the bamboo to where it would touch every surface of it. Also, an idea bout making the bamboos having an organized look to it, for example, smaller width bamboos gradually increasing in diameters as it reaches the other end. With these ideas and thoughts, I went back and reconstructed another one. The final look came out to look something like this.



But, pretty much that is my project this time around. I really enjoyed making it because I had a clear purpose after awhile and I knew it was something I could be proud of doing. Hopefully the next project will be something as interesting and fun as this one!

Image

Date: Sept. 14, 2010.
Time Length: 10-15 mins
Location: IAR Studio
Why: I chose this not because it was the best drawing or anything in my sketch book, but rather it was about the texture of the drawing. The shading and different strokes I believed in this drawing succeeded at the given task to draw my sticks. The line curves and even the little bumps were included in the drawing, unlike most of the other drawings where it was roughly a gesture drawing to me. This demonstrated drawings based on different styles that I found pleasing to the eye.

LEAF PROJECT IARC 101

There were many steps that was involved in the creation of the final product for this project. But it began with a blank expression as to what I would do since the guidelines were pretty much opened to almost all possibilities as long as it only involved the one sheet of paper, 12.5" by 12.5" and a leaf of my choice. I had probably experimented with 4-5 different leafs and a couple of different types of paper before deciding on the final material to use, but even then, the final thought wasn't what I had predicted to be the final product. I believed I struggled with the thinking process of this project as I was trying to be too complex with my creations instead of just going with the flow and creating something simple but effective. Which sometimes is the best method for anything. I listened to the different ideas and examples my professors were providing and it became easier, little by little, it was forming into something worth noting. As I was experimenting with trash papers and the final leaf that I wanted to work with, which afterward I would make the same design, only better quality, and a different style of paper, I found that the trash paper didn't hold up to what I wanted to do so well. The strength it provided was weak, and therefore, the walls caved outward. But, it's OK, I thought. This was only an example of the final product. Before I had decided on the final one, or what I thought would be, I had initial planned to have 2 sides folded up, forming what seems to be a window with vertical line openings in the box. The leaf would be wrapped inside and outside to hold together the paper. But then another problem presented itself. I couldn't think of a way to get the strands of paper, the vertical part, to hold each other, or even to be attached to the other side of the paper. I had to come to a conclusion that I either needed to cut those off, or keep it intact wholly, without stripping any pieces off. And that was when this came about:



I weaved the leaf into the four top sides, and it came out what looks like to be an H shape. This final product with the trash paper wasn't bad, but the wall needed to be tuned up better to make it stand completely up as if it was a box. That's when I was about to use the final paper product of the Vellum paper to make the box, but saw a piece of paper rolled up perfectly, from all the pieces I have been cutting out from. I picked it up and examine it with interest, and decided to play around with it a bit. I placed cuts into several areas of the rolled up piece of trash paper and then began to slip the leaf into it and out. It was so simple, and effective, hardly any troubles, as if this was what was suppose to be in the first place. The way the trash paper illuminated the leaf from within because it was transparent, to how the leaf itself looked like as it wrapped around the cylinder trash paper, everything fitted together so wonderfully. This image of the product stirred something inside of me as every time I look at it, it just felt right, like this was a part of me, something that must be kept the way it is. That's why I didn't decide to use any other different type of paper for this one, and also because the wrapping would differ from one piece to the next. I did, however, decided to cut the tip of it, making it seem like the leaf had a certain direction to follow in. Here is what it looked like, the product that I chose to stick with in the end:



And this, was my final project for the leaf & the paper. Two piece of items that relates to each other not only in materials but how it also interacted with each other. The perfect place for a leaf to be.