Upcycle Progress: Ideation & Materials

6 years ago

2019 - new, Student Work

To begin this project I thought about which material I wanted to use. I wanted something that gave me a lot room for creativity and didn’t push me into a certain style. I also thought about what functionality do I want to get out of this project and not make something that has no purpose outside of class. I came to using wood because I felt it gave me that creative space that I wanted. With what I wanted to make I wanted it to first, be unconventional and second, be useful for me. That’s when I started thinking about designing a wooden cup, but just any cup, a cup with a functional design. Big enough to be close to a beer stein but modeled differently. So currently I am planning to carve a skull into the cup to where you use the eyes and the nose to get a firm grip on it. I am still in the process of fully solidifying how I want the orientation, the rim, and the inside of the cup to look. I was able to obtain a nice enough piece of wood from my boss at work. After explaining what I was planning to do she told me that they had wood left over from a tree that was cut down in their neighborhood and that should we see about acquiring a piece that would fulfill my needs for the cup. Now I just need to shape the wood, clean it, and possibly fill in the cracks with a mold to have a nice effect on the finish product.

4 Comments. Leave new

Summing Up 2019 – Aesthetics of Design
May 18, 2019 8:19 pm

[…] Upcycle Progress: Ideation & Materials […]

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Andres Esteve
February 3, 2019 8:15 pm

Hi Joseph, looking forward to see the final product! II think filling the cracks with epoxy like you mentioned is an excellent idea, if you do choose to go that route I have some experience with it and have some left over about 400ml (I dont know how many cracks this could cover). I think carving the skull or cup will be the most difficult part but definitely an interesting, fun challenge.

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Jordan Nahabetian
February 3, 2019 12:03 pm

It’s good you decided that the goal of the artifact was to be useful for you. It can be easier to design with those constraints. I like the idea of using a piece of wood, but just keep in mind the scope of carving a piece of wood and the issues that may arise. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

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Luke Collier
January 31, 2019 3:53 pm

Joseph, I am really inspired by your use of wood from a chopped-down neighborhood tree. It makes me think of the walnut tree that was growing out of our house’s foundation that we had to chop down. I’ll have to check if I still have some of that wood. I would also like to learn how to fill in cracks in wood scraps and make a wood product look presentable.

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