Connections & Growth

This week we were asked to bring in a sheet of material, preferably recycled. I brought in some old cardboard that mum had been using as a cutting mat. We also had to bring in multiples of one material. I brought in some sticky felt pieces that you stick to thee bottom of furniture so it doesn't scratch your floor.

The first warm up we used our sheet of material and divided it into three even pieces, we then made three models, one large and open, one dense and layered and one that was textured and decorative. As I was making the first object I would cut something a certain way and come up with solutions to the second piece, they all flowed into each other.

We then used our multiple items to explore different methods of joining. I tried out four different ways. The first method was threading with a needle and cotton thread, the second was using wire, the third was using the sticky back of the felt pieces and the fourth was cutting out slots and joining them that way. I like the idea of sewing them and I think there is

a lot of potential for variation in sewing, and creating patterns on the felt pieces. Joining them using only their adhesive back didn't work very well as it wasn't a very strong adhesive, I would need to use super glue to make it more permanent, although I like the pattern and the repetition in the diamond like caterpillar.

These are the maquettes from the class:

The largest possible, open, permeable structure.

A dense layered structure

A textured and decorative structure.

These are the maquettes that explored joining methods:

Cotton thread.

Wire.

Adhesive.

Slots.

We then drew sketches of the materials and further explored the ways we could bind the material using the same binding device just in different ways. The sketch I like the most is the one with the little squares, but when I was actually joining them it was my least favorite. Next week we are going to try out all the methods we sketched out with the same materials.