Student Work

I will be making some sort of Q-Tip sculpture for my project. I will most likely be imitating something organic, such as a tree or a human skull. I’m not 100% sure on exactly what I’m doing or what aesthetic I will be aiming for but I have collected materials (Q-Tips, superglue, and markers). This…

  This upcycle project was inspired by the rustic Adirondack feel that many mountain cabins and homes have.  When I lived in upstate New York (Potsdam, NY), many home had this aesthetic associated with it. Source Link Source Link Being an avid skier and having a lot of extra trail maps, it seemed appropriate to…

Today we went over the requirements for the Upcycle presentations and reports (those will be in a separate post real soon). We also did a little practice sketching basic shadows of boxes. 11 Supernormal Stimuli

The above videos are demonstrations of my Upcycle project in action. I enjoy learning about lighting and stage design. For my upcycle project, I created a miniature scale electronic dance music (EDM) projection stage. A projection stage is generally a structure with three-dimensional surfaces on top of which images are projected from a video projector. Projection stages are…

I knew that I wanted to approach the Upcycle design problem with something that achieved both form and function. Following my design loop, I researched sustainable materials that could achieve such a thing. Initially I wanted to build a piece of furniture, however I realized quickly that finding strong upcyclable material such as wood, discarded…

For the project of creating a desktop sized mountain bike using paper clips soldered together, the process has been largely trial and error. Once I got the idea, I researched online, seeing if other people had attempted similar ideas. There seemed to be a decent amount of information regarding soldering paperclips, but this application seemed…

My design process so far has been conducted in stages—idea, planning, preparation, etc.—each with a different type of evaluation or self-critique (see Fig.1 above). My original concept of aluminum sheet modeling was scrapped due to difficulty and cost in the early stages, while my current subject of jar terrariums has progressed smoothly to the preparation stage (see Fig.2 above). Ideation is…

What I have learned from my upcycle project design process thus far is the following: It is never too late to make iterations. Don’t get too attached to one idea. Let your constraints inspire you. Let me start by explaining how my upcycle project has progressed from start to finish.  As illustrated in my diagram,…

Even though I had a frustrating start to my design process, struggling to decide what to make and what to make it with, I had a fairly straight forward design loop until I hit a dead-end. I had decided to use cardboard as my raw material. I settled on the idea of making a piece…

The design process for my homemade guitar is almost done and I have started taking measurements for a more precise model. When first starting out with the project, I drew a picture of a basic electric guitar and tried to identify all of the essential parts. For each one, I had to figure out exactly…

It has been mentioned in a few other posts, so I suppose I can say it again: the hardest part was picking an upcycle concept and material. Once I had a few concepts on paper, the design started to flow pretty naturally. My design loop began with inspiration from a gift I had received from…

It took a long time for me to finally decide on what I wanted to make for the upcycle project, but once I found what I wanted it was a fairly smooth  process to complete. I decided to make something called a fidget spinner. They are typically made out of a bearing housed in either…

My project started out without any set goal or a direction. After taking tedious classes which requires planning just shy of a German train schedule. It was much more tempting for me to remove the cobwebs out of the creative thinking section of the brain and let those neurons loose. Luckily for me, being a…

For my upcycling process I am working on making reusable glasses and shot glasses from beer bottles. The design process that I have been in has been a circle. I started with an idea, and from the idea, I designed an aesthetic that I thought would be exciting for a beer bottle glass. Then after…

My upcycling project is making a woodwind instrument. The hardest part of the project is calibrating pitches and this involves a lot of experimentation. I was originally going to use metal piping to get a more vibrant sound but soon realized that this would take a long time to machine and making mistakes could become…

The design process so far has been frustrating: I have looped back to previous steps several times so far. My project is an electronic project, but given the nature of the Upcycle project all the components have to be scraps discarded from other projects. These parts are very difficult to work with, as I don’t…

I’m a guess and check kind of lady, and I learn from my mistakes. I made a prototype plastic bag sandal that turned out super small and trashy. There was no way I could turn in these shoes for a grade. I’m not even going to show a picture of them on this blog post,…

I started the upcycle project thinking I would carve a specialized and unique hockey stick out of wood. However, when I Googled, “Homemade Hockey Stick,” I was inspired by what I saw. Ever since then, I’ve been working on making something out of broken hockey sticks. The key constraint has been the number of sticks…

I went through a frustrating design process creating my upcycle project. I knew what material I wanted to use, and I knew the general theme of what I wanted to make. However, I ended up throwing out a lot of ideas after I tested them for feasibility. I knew I wanted to make something I…

The design process naturally varies from project to project. For this project, I spent a lot of time thinking about what to make. I wanted something useful, and that I could use on a daily basis. At first that does not seem like a tall task; however with the limitation that it had to be…

Brainstorming for an idea is the hardest part. Once you get pass that, everything starts to fall together. I sketched out some ideas of what I wanted to cast. After that, I found out that silicone molds are relatively cheap to make and they can withstand heat. This means that I can safely melt down…

I do not come from an engineering background or area of study, so a design loop is kind of new to me. I do almost all of my creative work digitally through programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. So when I envision something I want to create, I kind of just jump in after some brainstorming.…

My design process was loopy. As I started planning the design out and actually working on it, some things that I thought would look good didn’t, so I removed them. Other things just didn’t work, like the Litchenberg Figure on the wood. Things got rearranged and moved around, like the hooks and the placement of…

For me the process of design is all about constantly going back to the drawing board. For our upcycle project I have had to do this with the design I intend to create using a mosaic of blank CD pieces. It is very hard to cut CDs with scissors and especially to make clean straight…

I decided to scrap the idea of making a skateboard rack due to my lack of access to woodworking tools. Instead, I’m creating a steampunk chest/trunk with cardboard and duct tape. This is far more feasible and allows me to express my artistic talents better. My design process included ideation, sketching, gathering materials, preparation of…

For my upcycle project, I will be melting down brass shell casings and casting a new shape using the lost foam method. I began the iterative design loop with this idea in mind but there so many different possibilities for where I could take the project. Sketching a few shapes I thought would be cool to…

For my upcycle project I used the design loop above. It started really with choosing a material and then using the internet to find inspiration and ideas about what I wanted to make. Once I knew I wanted to make some type of statue, I began sketching it out using the “beer cans” I chose…

For my upcycling project, I am melting the leftover waxes from other candles and putting them into one big glass vase for aesthetic appeal. Although this will obviously be an aesthetic project, I hope to also make it functional by adding string to the middle of the molten wax so that I can light the…

For my upcycle project, I am building a projection stage, which is essentially a scale model of a large electronic dance music stage. It consists of three-dimensional platforms which create space to display projections, as well as an area where a DJ booth would be placed. The entire stage is made out of cardboard and printer paper. My design loop…

For the Upcycle project, I have decided to utilize the empty glass bottles and produce bags I have lying around my apartment. My idea is to make hanging planters to house my air plants so they can be hung from the ceiling by the window and get plenty of sunlight. I was inspired by current designs…

Today we played the Aesthetics Game. Teams drew a random object and applied a randomly chosen aesthetic, and made sketches on the whiteboards around the room. Some awesome mashups resulted! Very popular: the Mob Culture electric razor, and the Sk8r Shoe Toilet. 09 Aesthetics Game A set of screwdriversSuburbia in TV commercials

Skis have been used to traverse the globe for thousands of years. Born out of necessity, skis helped farmers, trappers, and warriors travel long distances more effectively. The skis utilized then were thick and made of wood. A common problem in ski design occurs from the weight of the skier concentrating in the middle of…

  My upcycle project was inspired by a company that I worked for a couple of years ago called American Installations. This is a countertop fabrication and installation company. Here they work with a solid surface material called Corian to make all of the countertops, table and bathroom vanities. After manufacturing their product they have…

For my upcycling project I hope to create a functional object. I also want something that would be visually pleasing to the eye. Mixing discarded blankets, towels, and patches of fabric with cement water can provide some wonderful shapes when manipulated properly. After mixing, the fabric is hung over a stool and left to dry. Once…

For my upcycle project I was inspired by some of the cardboard lamps that I have seen in the past. I remembered some of the cardboard art that I have previously made in a middle school art class. The art looked something like this: I wanted to think of other ways to expose the inner…

(source: pinterest.com/pin/30188259982318117/) For my upcycling project, I was wanting to make something more visually pleasing rather than functional. I have been obsessing over interior design lately, so I decided I wanted to make some sort of decor for my apartment. This nail and thread art came to mind. I plan on taking recycled wood pieces to…

For my Upcycle project, I am going to attempt to build a guitar out of spare materials laying around the house. I have always loved playing the guitar and rock music in general, so I thought it would be something fun to try. I initially got the idea from Jack White in the documentary It…

One of the side effects of moving in from different country, as I did six months ago, is that I ended up with a lot this. So, when we were given an upcycling assignment, I had little doubt about what raw materials I was going to use for the project. Yes, I decided to use…

I am planning on welding a house of cards using scrap metal and then putting cards on the faces of the metal to make it seem like a normal house of cards. This is a commentary on how if you cannot overcome something, change the rules. Blow all you want, my house of cards is…

My upcycle ideation thus far has consisted of multiple ideas and not a whole lot of commitment to any, single concept. So my strategy is I will outline my top few concepts here and please post any feedback in the comments. 1) Upcycled Glasses and Matching Bistro Lights (or Lamp) My uncle recently introduced me…

One of the most common things that is thrown away in my house of seven people, is cans. Whether its tin cans from food goods or various beer cans from many different brands. I began collecting them as soon as I heard about this project but did not yet know what I wanted to do…

While thinking about what to make for this project, I remembered a concert that I saw recently. The band Moon Hooch modified there instruments differently in each song to create new and unique sounds using mostly upcycled materials. They originally started playing in the subways stations of New York and as a tribute to that…