When I started this class, I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect. To me, aesthetics was just how things look. As I progressed through each class, and worked on the two projects that we were assigned, I realized there was so much more to aesthetics than how something looked. It was about how it was…

The fabrication process for my final project was fairly simple, and I was able to complete most of it over spring break. Since I was staying at my parent’s house for the week, I was able to use their tools in the fabrication process. The pieces that required specific manufacturing were the wooden base, and…

My final project for this class is a scaled back version of the desk toy I originally planned to make. In this first part of my report, I will go into my original vision, how I had to pivot, and where I ended up in the end. The second part of the report will dive…

Since my last post, I’ve been busy collecting materials and planning how my project will come together. So far, I have almost all the materials I need. The only materials that I’m missing is whatever will makeup my trinket, but that will most likely just consist of paper and string. Below are the materials I…

I don’t like the idea of using a single aesthetic to describe a person. People are complex, multifaceted beings that deserve more than a word with a two sentence Webster definition attached to it. So I’ve decided to write about all the different aesthetics that I feel encompass what being Mary Rahjes is all about.…

Just a forewarning, this video does have some bad language in it, but nothing too serious. I chose this video as my favorite design/build video for a number of reasons. To start, I don’t actually tend to watch a lot of design/build videos. It’s just not something I tend to spend a lot of time…

Within the past week, a lot of new challenges have arisen, all of which are caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The most pressing changes, in terms of the project, have been the closure of many school facilities, including the ITLL and Idea Forge. These facilities were the number one way, and for some the only…

For my final project, I am going to create a desk toy with a trinket of some sort that moves up and down. My vision for the project is to make something simple, yet still interesting to look at. I want it to express my interests outside of engineering. There are a number of materials…

As with any project, there are always constraints that need to be considered in order to create a completed product and achieve the desired vision. Listed below, in no particular order, are the top five constraints that came to mind when considering the next phases of my desk toy project. 1) Shape/Size I aim to…

In my previous post, I discussed how I wanted to create some sort of desk toy with a moving part. The main pieces of this project would consist of the box, the electronics, and the decorative “thing” that would be moving. I would like the aesthetics of the box and the “thing” to compliment each…

For my main project, I want to create something that I would keep at my desk at work or around my house as decoration. Knowing that one of the requirements for the final project is that it needs to have a dynamic element, I started brainstorming what would be appropriate to keep around in the…

Introduction/Vision When I started this project, I didn’t have a clear idea of what exactly I wanted to accomplish. I knew that I would be using bottle caps, but that didn’t give me any discernable direction or guidelines for moving forward. It took quite a bit of searching, and discussing, to finally come up with…

For the Aesthetics Game, my team pulled the item “backpack” and the aesthetic “Japanese motorcycles”. While these two things aren’t normally thought of as complementary, or in any way similar, we now had to find a way to combine them. The first step that I took was to start brainstorming. What did the “Japanese motorcycle”…

After considering the different ideas that I had for my bottle cap project, I decided to go with creating a bottle out of bottle caps. Once again, thanks to Ben Chang for the idea! Now that I had my idea, I needed to figure out how I would bring it into being. Generally, I had…

Coming into this class, I already knew that one of the first major assignments revolved around upcycling and reusing materials that we had readily available around us. So it was no question in my mind that I could create something with the bottle caps that I had been saving for quite a while. I had…

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio that was created by Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma in 1985. Some of their more notable films include My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo. Although each movie is different in terms of storyline, they all have themes within…