University - Second Year
My second year of study at Bucks consisted of 6 design projects, 3 live briefs, several CAD assignments and a maths exam.
Cutlery
This began by taking a found object and making it into a handle for a spoon we would then create. I chose a walnut shell and made a splat shape from copper for the spoon section. This shape resembles the inside of the walnut as it is totally organic and looks almost fluid.
The project then developed to creating a whole piece of cutlery. I looked into foods which could have a specific piece of cutlery to use and decided upon spaghetti. I created the wavy fork tines to not only look like spaghetti but to keep the pasta from falling off the fork once twirled. I then created a thicker handle for the fork to allow for easier twiddling of the spaghetti and wrapped it in wire to make it more tactile and tie in the spaghetti theme.
Cake Stand
After learning how to create a plaster cast and use this to create a slip model, we were given a brief to create a cake stand which had to involve a slip cast element.
I used a Budweiser bottle to take a cast of, cast five of these and began experimenting with different configurations to create a base out of the bottles. I decided upon the three interlinked to produce stability for the next two standing upright in-between glass plates, the smaller of the two being hand blown by myself. The result is a highly versatile cake stand which can display cake pops with the use of the top bottle.
Watch Project
The brief was to make a watch strap and casing. I experimented with wool and knitting machines and wove wool with elastic to create a stretchy wool combination which would stretch over the wrist and hold the watch in place. This was then woven into a watchstrap and casing using the knitting machines, switching wool colour every five rows to create the pattern. I then combined purple wool with Solovan (a plastic wool, which turns to glue when it comes into contact with water) to create a thread which I could crochet, place around a mould, spray with water and then heat to allow to set into a case to store the watch.
Recycling Project
We had to take a material that cannot currently be recycled, for instance rubber car tires, and create a range of products from this. Always wanting to take on a challenge, I chose chewing gum, which was challenging, but pushed me to think beyond the norms and experiment further than I had before.
I made a small bowl, door stop and coasters as show in the image to the left.
Future Phone
As part of a live brief we were tasked to look at the progression of phones in the past year, due to the iPhone being 5 years old and come up with a concept for the phone in the next 5 years. Mine has been designed with the elderly in mind, with the retro rotary dialer. It has a touch screen on the base to input gestures and another touch screen in the middle which can fold into the base using an O.L.E.D screen. There is a heart rate monitor on the top and a projector screen to assist with the emerging tele-health. This will improve the health of many people by being able to monitor them and therefore keep better records and ensure the correct treatment is administered at the correct time.
900%
As in year one we had this project to begin the uni year. This time I chose plastic bags to use and decided to turn them into bird feeders. After a lot of experimenting, i ironed layers of plastic bags to create the structure. This took ages, but I was pleased with the results in the end.