Ashley Zimmerer

14 posts

Desk Garden Final Report Part 2

April 27, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Final Report Main Project 2016, Student Work, ZZ 2016

desk, garden, modern, planter, plants

The desk garden is currently a nice addition to my desk. I made it because I like plants and wanted to start keeping some. My desk is a little bare, so the desk garden livens it up. Originally, I thought I would use a square footprint and that the planter would have an overhead watering…

Desk Garden Final Report Part 1

April 21, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Final Report Main Project 2016, Student Work, Update Weds April 20 2016, ZZ 2016

I made a desk garden. I wanted to work with water, plants, and light, and while it took me a very long time to settle on something, I finally did. I want a nice looking, modern planter for my desk. Here’s an image of the CAD for my final design. I really didn’t want to make…

Progress! Desk Garden Update

April 13, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Student Work, Update Weds April 13 2016, ZZ 2016

concrete, desk, garden, messy, plastic

I made the structure! Yay! It was super frustrating and took way too long, but I did it. Let me tell you the story with pictures and several words… I coated the mold for the base with WD-40. WD-40. Nothing seems wrong yet… Then I mixed up a batch of fast setting concrete. This stuff…

Another Desk Garden Update

April 6, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Student Work, Update Weds April 6 2016, ZZ 2016

3d print, cast, desk, garden, laser, mold

I have had almost no time! Yay! Since last week, the only updates I’ve got are little ones. I ordered resin to use to cast the dirt box. I also laser cut the pieces for the dirt box mold out of cardboard. I keep forgetting that I have electronics, but next week I will have…

Desk Garden 3/30 Update

March 30, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Impact of 20th Century design movements plus update Weds March 30 2016, Student Work, ZZ 2016

I wasn’t as productive over break as I would have hoped. I got sick, but I did get something done. I finally nailed down my design (yay!). I also built a couple parts of it and got everything else ready to 3D print. I haven’t looked at the electronics again, but I will as soon…

Desk Garden Update 3/17

March 17, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Student Work, Update Weds March 16, 2016, ZZ 2016

Arduino, bulbasaur, desk, planter, RedBoard, succulents

I now have a pretty solid idea of what I want this thing to look like! I haven’t had time to do any CAD (surprise surprise…), but I’m planning on doing that soon. I’ve got the electronics, and I played around with some of the LEDs and the RedBoard (basically an Arduino Uno). Turns out…

Desktop Garden Constraints

March 8, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Student Work, Top 5 Constraints 2016, ZZ 2016

At the moment, the items below are the top five constraints I can think of for my desk garden. The garden must be able to plug into the wall for power. It must be leak-proof so it won’t ruin my desk. All electronics must be concealed (and kept dry) within the 1′ by 1′ by…

Desk Garden: Minimal Care Required

March 1, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Main Project Design Review 2016, Student Work, ZZ 2016

desk, desktop, green, modern, plant, planter, water

The Idea So as usual, I’m having difficultly sticking with an idea. Originally, I kind of wanted to build a living computer case. However, I don’t need another computer, and acquiring all the working computer parts I would need is going to be way too expensive for it to be worth it right now. I’m…

Plants in Unlikely Places

February 24, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Main Project Inspirations 2016, Student Work, ZZ 2016

I’m kind of going back and forth on ideas for my main project right now. Before I come out and say it, I’m going to do a bit more thinking. I can go into my inspirations though. There’s no shortage of them. I really like plants. All kinds of plants. Especially green ones that…

Things I Want to Do

February 16, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Aspirations 2016, Student Work, ZZ 2016

aerospace, astronaut, engineer, explorer, mars, mission, moon, space

At the end of this semester, I will be graduating. That’s both exciting and scary, and I don’t know which is more over powering. Anyways, I’m really hoping to use as many of the skills I’ve learned in my projects this semester and develop them further. Using thermo would be great, maybe heat transfer, fluids, system…

Ashley’s Skills

February 9, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Skill Sets 2016, Student Work, ZZ 2016

CAD, craft, machine, other, sewing, shop, skill set, skills, software, wood

The featured image is a picture I took while machining some copper parts I made for a scientific rocket payload. I programmed the Prototrak CNC in the Idea Forge Shop to produce the parts. A corner desk I’m in the process of finishing. I’ve had a lot of experience building and manufacturing things over the years. I’m…

Decorative Aspen Branch Light

February 2, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Student Work, Upcycle Project Report 2016, ZZ 2016

aspen, aspen branch, branch, centerpiece, decorative, decorative light, design loop, iteration, LEDs, light, rustic, rustic modern, Upcycle

Initial Design Process My original idea for this project was to create a thing. I knew that I wanted to make something cool, so I looked up pictures of upcycled projects on Google. I saw a lot of cool things, and I thought that I wanted to make something out of doilies. I had in…

Progress on Aspen Branch Light

February 1, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Student Work, Upcycle Progress 2016, ZZ 2016

aspen, light, rustic, tree

I love aspen trees, and I thought that using them to make some sort of decorative light would be really neat. I started by gathering a bunch of fallen aspen branches and logs on a hike up by Nederland High School. I didn’t want to cut anything off a living tree because firstly that would be…

Modern Rustic Design

January 19, 2016

Ashley Zimmerer

Aesthetic Explorations 2016, Student Work, ZZ 2016

angles, brick, combination, contemporary, cozy, fire, fireplace, interesting, metal, modern, modern rustic, rough, rustic, simple, warm, wood, wool

The Modern Rustic aesthetic is my all-time favorite design style. Its warm, natural and inviting, yet also clean and simple. Also know as ‘rustic modern’, this design style became recognized at some point in the 20th century. The earliest book I could find describing this aesthetic was written in 2000 by Ali Hanan: “Modern Rustic: Natural Ideas…