Before I could begin creating my model, I had to come up with a basic floor plan/design that would allow me to know the dimensions needed to build this small-scale house. While I did decide to start from scratch and create my own building, there needed to be a starting point of inspiration. As I’ve…

For my upcyling project I am trying to make a press. Like a bookbinding press but for small art pieces and flowers. The goal is for it to use gravity rather than mechanical advantage to apply force, and to ensure that it doesnt take up extra usable space on my desk I’m attempting to make…

I chose the pastoral aesthetic for my upcycling project, mainly because it invokes feelings of springtime that I am in desperate need of. Unfortunately inspiration for the actual project has been hard to come by in my day-to-day life – going outside hasn’t really given me much reference to what springtime feels like, and I…

For my upscale project, I have decided to use beer box faces to create a guitar strap that resembles the look of a college apartment beer wall. So far I have cut up multiple boxes into 1 inch strips. I have weaved them together into a pattern that allows the viewer to be able so…

This week I took my 3 rough sawn blocks of spalted maple to the bandsaw to re-saw them. I used a plastic light cover from my apartment to gauge the distance from the fence to the blade, and then cut all the blocks parallel to their largest face to get as many usable sheets as…

For this week I continued working on sketching out my plan and actually building some of the smaller, individual components. I realized that I was adding extra steps for myself with the scotch yoke connected to the right-angle which would then convert into linear motion. I could just connect the yoke directly to the beam.…

For my upcycling project, I am creating a bird sculpture out of discarded aluminum cans. I chose the Gray Jay to model my sculpture out of. It is reasonably sized, as I intend to make my sculpture to scale, and it has a bleak color palette. This fits well with the feeling I would like…

For my up-cycling project, I had decided to use the extra electrical jumper wires lying around in my lab. The first task I identified was to set an aesthetic for my project artifact. Using the wires I had just as is, would not have conformed to a certain aesthetic and so I decided to strip…

For the progress on my upcycle project I have finished creating a base for my miniature model house I plan on making. It is made using recycled cardboard from a UPS shipping box as well as a tissue box. I used the UPS box carboard as the landscape and cut multiple different layers to simulate…

The aesthetic I wish to explore is functionalism; this is idea that a things pure value and beauty is derived from it’s use (or function). I may not agree directly with this aesthetics’ cut and dry approach to beauty but I do believe that things which are functional and beautiful are more valuable that one…

I chose a headphone stand for my upcycle project as a way to improve my carpentry skills and to create a functional piece of art for my workspace. I decided to choose minimalism as my inspiration, and so it is a relatively simple design composed of a base and a “tree” to hang the headphones…

The upcycle project I am working on is a rear bike fender made from an aluminum can. The first constraint I am working within is the size of an aluminum can. I would like to use just one can so I needed the dimensions to find the maximum amount of material I could use. The…

For my up-cycling project, a cybernetic punk soldering table. I have made good progress in design and material sourcing, but still have notable manufacturing time ahead of me. In terms of materials, I have all the required materials to complete my project. These consist of a large collection of aluminum cans, which must be cut…

For my upcycle project I chose to pursue building a tensegrity table. I acquired all my materials from the makerspace located in the idea forge on CU’s campus. My materials can be seen below, consisting of two rectangular ply-wood boards, one 1.25″ diameter wood rod, about 5 feet of paracord, and about six inches of…

My upcycle project is going well and I am making strong progress. I have finished up the CAD model and have created the initial CorelDraws to be able to Laser Cut the cardboard. In addition, I have collected the materials I will be using: cardboard and a ball bearing. My next step will be to…

For my Upcycle project, I am making my own rendition of a Turner’s Cube out of a scrap piece of aluminum. To start, I researched Turner’s cubes online. After seeing varying designs and types, I understood the aesthetic I was going for, cubes in circles that are not free floating. I designed my cube in…

Before I could begin sourcing my material for my project I first had to have a come up with a basic form for the pants. That way, when I looked for potential cargos to alter, I would have a solid idea of the sizes and colors of the different sections of the pants. As you…

During the time between my previous post and this one, I decided not to proceed with the two previous ideas that I had. I have finalized what I will be doing and have collected all the required materials for it. I chose to stick to the terrarium idea and decided to have it in a…

Last week I had decided to make a camping chair out of bike tubes, but I hadn’t decided on a design. After pondering multiple designs, I decided to make the chair out of two pieces that will fit together instead of making a folding mechanism. I also measured a few chairs in order to come…

Up to this point, I have collected all materials necessary for my upcycle project, and am now working on final manufacturing processes and assembly. Unfortunately, I was unable to utilize the upcycled stained glass I found, and instead decided to use copper sheet I purchased from McGuckin. I decided to downscale my lamp to one…

My upcycling project is coming along nicely as I enter into the second week of designing. I’m building a two layered indoor planter. The aesthetic I’m using is the 35mm film aesthetic I discussed in my previous post. At this point in time I’d say I’m about halfway done with my project. To start out,…

Last week I said that I would make a xatu out of recycled cans and so far I have made some progress on my design. On top of that, I believe I have all the materials that I need to complete the project. I have well over enough cans of different colors to meet my…

Introduction Dark and creepy feelings, creative shadow designs, ornate tracery, and animal bones are so far the highlight of my Upcycle project. I am sticking to the Modern Gothic design aesthetic to create a lamp that will be a centerpiece piece that projects light across the room. So far I’ve received excellent feedback from people…

For this project, I took an old pair of Converse I had and am embroidering flowers into one of the shoes. So far I have made progress on the main flower on my shoe which I think is coming along well. I have never embroidered before so there was definitely a little bit of a…

For my upcycling project, I am building a 70’s themed cat house. I am gifting the final product to my co-worker! I knew I wanted to incorporate the use of cardboard. I started by taking a big box from my closet and cutting it up. I then used a glue gun to begin assembling the…

Admittedly, I would like to be farther along on my project than I am. So far, I have acquired the piece of technology that I am going to destroy in the name of this class. It’s an old Panasonic VCR found at Goodwill, bought at a much lower price than it was probably sold for.…

One of the most time-consuming parts of my project is the living part of the plants. This week I planted some leftover seeds from my grandmother’s garden in hopes that some will sprout for my final project report. I will take these seeds and transplant them into my upcycle pencil holder once it is complete.…

So far I have been able to collect all of the materials for the tapestry and determine exactly how I want to go about constructing the piece. I have selected to use mostly darker denim material that I picked up from the thrift store. I have been cutting apart the pairs of jeans along the…

The inspiration for my upcycling project came from Central European folk ornamentation, and in particular, the work of Slovak artist Štefan L. Kostelničák. Central European folk ornamentation is incredibly varied across different regions, time periods, and even among individual artists. It champions the creativity and imagination of each individual who engages with it. At the…

My Upcycling project has been proceeding with mixed success. I worked to determine the area I wanted to focus on, and decided on Long’s Peak and the Dream Lake area of Rocky Mountain National Park. After working hard to generate STL files using topographic data by setting the size, setting a z-scaling factor, and determining…

Progress on my Bonsai tree has been slow, but as expected, quite therapeutic! My first task to tackle was the untangling of the telephone wire I purchased from Art Parts. The wire came wrapped in smaller bundles with colorful ribbon. I considered the possibility of keeping the ribbon, but I thought the juxtaposition between materials…