Portfolio: Zoe Cooper

In this course, I accomplished many things. I love making projects and working under certain challenges or restrictions, so it was fun to see what I could come up with given the project requirements. While I enjoyed the challenges, I also appreciated the freedom to make essentially anything I wanted. I like to think of myself as someone who does things without too much second-guessing, so coming up with ideas wasn’t hard.

The challenge of an upcycle project didn’t seem difficult, given that I try to reuse as much material as I can in any project I do. When I see lumber or furniture on the side of the road or leaned up against a dumpster, I try to think of ways I could use it. Reusing and reducing materials is incredibly important in everything, especially physical manufacturing and fabrication. I have a million projects I want to make, but there’s never enough time, so I just had to spin a wheel and pick one for our upcycle challenge. I landed on a film slide lampshade, which I’ve been wanting to make for a while.

View my posts on my film slide lampshade here:

Nostalgic Ephemera Aesthetic Film Slide Lampshade

Upcycle Progress: Film Slide Lampshade

Modern Film Slide Lampshade (Opposite Upcycle Aesthetic)

Photos From the Past, Reimagined

This project was really fun for me. I love looking through old photos and memorabilia, so gathering a collection of film slides and admiring each photo was therapeutic and honestly enlightening. I stayed on schedule with this project, and while I’m proud of how it turned out, after sitting with it for a while, there are adjustments I wish I had made earlier or possible changes I could make in the future. I still have a ton of leftover slides, so I always have the opportunity to make another lamp or modify this one.

Moving on to the main project, I had a few ideas in mind. The only requirement we were given for this one was that it had to have a dynamic component. I had some ideas for an instrument rack, but I had to abandon that to incorporate something dynamic. I shifted my plan to a toy piano, which I made a few drafts for before deciding on a recreation of a family piano. I had a lot of fun seeing photos of the piano I had never seen before (shoutout to my mom and my grandma), which felt very similar to looking through the film slides for my upcycle project. I think the history of items is one of the most valuable things about them. I could pay for a brand-new wooden chair or the same chair with decades of history, and I would always prefer the latter. The design of the chair matters, but the life it has lived matters, too.

View my posts on my toy piano project here:

Plans & Inspirations: Toy Piano

Aesthetic Plans & Alternatives

Design Preview Report on the Toy Piano

Specifications and Constraints for the Toy Piano

Toy Piano Progress

Grandma’s Piano: A Miniature Replica – Final Report Part 1

Grandma’s Piano: A Miniature Replica – Final Report Part 2

Again, I had a lot of fun with this project, and I’m super proud of how it turned out. I love woodworking, so this project was an opportunity to practice some of my skills and get a little more sawdust in my lungs. While both of my projects for this course have something to do with history and preserving memories, they’re represented in different ways. My lampshade holds stories that aren’t mine—I showcase the photos and am allowed to wonder about the stories behind them. My piano is a direct replica of one that holds a strong place in my memory and my family’s memory, so it has a different kind of meaning to me. The two could be seen as more similar by someone else, since they’re both about other people’s stories. I like this aesthetic, which I’ve applied to both of my projects. This was completely unintentional, but I was just drawn to it as I started planning.

I’m happy I took this class, as it allowed me to practice some fabrication skills and expand my creativity. I love both of my projects, and I think the fact that I have more ideas for both is a good sign.

To see more of my work, or to get in touch with me, visit my portfolio at zoecooper.com