Upcycle Final Report: Scrap Thermometer
8 Comments
    My idea for the upcycle project was born out of necessity-my car doesn’t have a thermometer, but I have always wanted one. I suppose I could have gone out and bought one, but that didn’t seem right-this fancy education should be teaching me something, right? “maybe I can build one” I thought. The upcycle…
Upcycle Final Report: Fidget Spinner
Figuring out what I wanted to make from objects around my house was a hard decision to make. Stumbling across fidget toys that “high quality” made me want to try and make one for this project. Of these toys, fidget spinners caught my attention the most. Many of these are 3D printed or milled with…
Upcycle Final Report: Nail and Thread Art
PROJECT INSPIRATION Photo sources: pinterest.com/pin/470344754815433809/ pinterest.com/pin/237635317816986795/ pinterest.com/pin/305822630929377089/ PROJECT VISION 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.…
Upcycle Final Report: Plarn
I think like my brain is a bowl of spaghetti, and my design process follows suit. One tangent loops to another, and the cycle continues until it looks like linguini. Hopefully this report take a more linear path, but no guarantees. On a totally related tangent, I really like the movie Zoolander (but not Zoolander…
Upcycle Final Report: Paper Mache Stool
For my Upcycle project, I will be making a paper mache stool. I got the inspiration when I was sitting on my couch with my feet up resting on an ottoman. The ottoman at my house was extremely worn down so I thought about buying another one when I realized I could just build a…
Upcycle Final Report – Bottle Tree Lamp
The bottle tree has always been a project that I wanted to complete. Originally I had seen a similar design at a friends house and thought, “What a creative way to reuse old bottles!” Ideas started bouncing around. First, it was to display some of the better drinks in my opinion. Next, to be a…
Upcycle Final Report | Cardboard Lamp
The original inspiration for my project cane from the website ylighting.com I was browsing through the following images on their website: and was inspired to create my own take on one of their fixtures. The design process was initially straight forward until I reached a major hiccup when I talked to the owner of the…
Upcycle Final Report: How Baby Terrariums Are Made
Click here for a video of the presentation. Most of the slides can be found below. I originally considered a very different project… I am a fan of the Metal Earth series of miniature models laser-cut from thin sheets of steel, so I had planned to design and cut my own out of aluminum beverage cans.…
Upcycle Final Report: Decorative Cork Ball
Project Vision: Initially, I was stuck in the ideation phase. I debated between three concepts for this project: something made out of cork, a recycled dress, or PVC furniture. All three concepts had different aesthetic and functional goals. After comments and suggestions from family, friends, and classmates, I chose to create a Cork Disco Ball. The idea…
Design Loop Reality: Cork Disco Ball
Within the past week, I have settled on an idea for the Upcycle Project: a used wine cork lighting fixture. This idea originated from several ornamental cork balls I found online, as shown below the images below. I like the spherical organic shape with the different coloured stained wine corks. The addition of a light…
Upcycle Final Report: Silicone Products
Introduction I began the upcycling project by brainstorming different ideas, and they were: Cardboard structure DVD/CD Sculpture Acrylic casting using silicone mold I picked the last option which was to create a silicone mold and melt down acrylic to cast. As I did more research on how to melt down acrylic and create silicone molds,…
Upcycle Final Report: Theo Jansen Inspired Kinetic Sculpture
Inspired by Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest project, I set out to create my own functional desktop Strandbeest. I wanted the creature to be powered by a crank, made out of paper, and resemble the aesthetic created by Jansen but with my own more modern industrial twist. For those unfamiliar with his work here is a brief.…
Design Loop Reality: Hanging Planters
I think my engineering mentality has led me to believe that the best way to start something is to think linearly. But things never ever end up the way I planned it, so I really should learn from my mistakes. Nevertheless, I started this Upcycle project with a linear design process. From choosing materials, to…
Upcycle Final Report: Steampunk Jellyfish
Inspired by the giant, steampunk octopus of Burning Man, “El Pulpo Mechanico”, and a favorite video game character of mine, Fallout 4‘s “Codsworth”, I decided to use steampunk as the aesthetic of my Upcycle project and build a much smaller-scale jellyfish. My initial plans for materials included (but were not limited to) light bulbs, guitar strings, scrap…
Design Loop Reality: Hat Rack
The design process for the hat rack began in my room. I was thinking what could be improved what do I need. I did not start with what materials were available. I think you could go either way. With mine I have hats strewn across my room. These need a place to be without taking…
Upcycle Final Report: Salvaged Hockey Stick Table
Project Goals and Material Selection: As a hockey player and sports fan, I have always loved the sports aesthetic. Whether you consider it to be sports bar-like or a man cave, I have Colorado Buffaloes, Green Bay Packers, and Wisconsin Badgers logos all over my walls. However, I do not have any sports-related furniture. How…
Upcycle Final Report: Reclaimed Treasure Chest
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure… chest. I decided to create a treasure chest out of cardboard boxes laying around my house for my project. At the brainstorming phase of my design process, I had decided to focus on utilizing a single upcycled resource as an artistic and functional statement. I settled on cardboard…
Upcycle Final Report: Bringing Steel to Life
Design Loop I came up with my aesthetic by first considering materials. I had a lot of remnant steel at my house and loved the idea of using a cold, lifeless material and to represent a living, organic thing. After deciding on my aesthetic, I brainstormed different design ideas. Upon deciding on a design,…
Upcycle Final Report: Cement light fixture
My main goal with this project was to make something I would actually be able to use. I already possessed a lightbulb outlet that wasn’t receiving any use and this became the main component in my upcycle design. The next step was developing the form and aesthetic of a fixture to hold this outlet. I…
Upcycle Final Report: Oyster Box
I wanted to create something that had a function, but still looked good. For someone living in a small apartment, having something that serves a purpose is important. I decided that I wanted to create a bowl as a place to store items like my keys and wallet, but I was stuck on a design. …
Upcycle Final Report: Beer Bottles
Inspiration: When I started to try and think of an upcycle project, the first thing that came to mind was to use items that are often found in my house. One of my roommates Peter, decided he wanted to build his own home brewing system several months ago. However, Peter never fully took on his…
Upcycle Final Report: Shoe Trophy
Presentation Link The Project: I wanted to find a use for my old pair of shoes, other than sitting in the back of my closet. I wanted a way to get the shoes to move, this ended up being by a bearing allowing the shoes to spin. I also wanted to do some woodworking for…
Upcycle Final Report: Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden
When I thought about what I was going to do for my Upcycling Project, I immediately thought of flowers. I always have a fresh bouquet of flowers in my room. I researched a couple different famous rose garden’s and decided to do the Peggy Rockefeller rose garden, because I liked the story behind it.…
Upcycle Final Report: Cardboard Cowboy Hat
Inspirations: I had a very clear inspiration for this project. I got the idea from a cowboy hat I already own, shown below. I love this hat, and I knew I could make my own. I decided this would be a great venture for me to try for this project. I also poked around online…
Upcycle Final Report: Cardboard Laptop Case
Hello everyone, Here we are at the end of the upcycle project, after many mistakes and design looping for many of us. The following is all of the steps and thoughts contained in my project: the cardboard laptop case! I did not google this idea before I began (honestly!) but Fig.1 is something I found that is…
Upcycle Final Report: Art Deco Tissue Box
When I started thinking about what I wanted to make for this project I knew I had to make something for my apartment. I also  wanted to take the recycling aspect of this project very seriously and didn’t want to buy anything new for this project.  So I looked around my room to see what…
Upcycle Final Report: Mechanical Bonsai
Inspiration: letting the artist in and giving the engineer a timeout After a frustrating brainstorming session over the weekend, I ended up making almost no progress. Hence, I decided to go ahead and build something out of discarded foam boards which I found in my RA resource room in my residence hall. I thought it…
Upcycle Final Report: Casting Brass
The Vision I started this project with the intent to create something I was proud of and could keep forever. After thinking about all the different kinds of artifacts I could create to accomplish that goal, I finally decided to cast something out of brass. Last summer I was intrigued by YouTube star Grant Thompson…
Upcycling Final Report: Candles
Project Vision My overall vision for the project was to take remnants of candle wax, shown in Figure 1 below, and make a single aesthetically intricate candle with triangular designs in it. This vision was based off a picture found on Google and is shown in Figure 2. A part of this vision was to…
Design loop: Key hanger
The attatch picture demonstrates the design loop process in my point of view. It starts off by brainstorming the idea that is going to solve the problem and then deciding on what its going to be. Followed by dividing team roles if there was a team into creating a plan according to the available…
Upcycle Final Report: Laundry Hamper
Upcycle Project: Final Report (more…)
Design Loop Reality: A Phone Stand
Here is a small pre-upcycle project I made, a adjustable phone stand that is higher than my Thrustmaster wheel so I can use the phone as a sim dashboard.
Design Loop Reality: Q-Tip Sculpture
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…
Upcycle Final Report: Trail Maps
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…
Upcycle Presentation and Report Requirements
Upcycle Presentations In class next week, all three days, we will have presentations in pods, groups of teams. These will be the pods for the rest of the semester too, so remember your pod assignment, shown below. Your pod has an assigned facilitator/timekeeper/session chair to keep things moving along. Locations for the presentations will be…
11 More sketching plus…
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
Upcycle Final Report: Scale Model EDM Stage
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…
Design Loop Reality: Cement light fixtures
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…
Design Loop Reality: Paperclip Bike
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…
Design Loop Reality: Jar Terrariums
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…
Design Loop: Ukulele to Puzzle
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,…
Design Loop: Cardboard Night Lamp
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…
Design Loop: Recycled Guitar
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…
Design Loop: Whiskey Bottle Chandelier and Matching Tumblers
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…
Design Loop: Fidget Spinner Design Iteration
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…
Design Loop: Bringing Steel to Life
The beginning of my design loop for the Upcycle Project was the selection/creation of an aesthetic that I wanted to achieve, “Bringing Steel to Life” (Step A). I wanted to utilize this aesthetic by creating representations of living, organic things out of remnant steel, and so began to brainstorm possible representations that I could possibly…
Design Loop: Upcycled Bottle Tree
The design process for the bottle tree was fairly simple. Seen above it was a linear process and didnt really have any loops or iterations to it. I started off with the idea in my head. A picture of what it would look like and a general idea of what materials I was going…
Design Loop: Paper Mache Stool
For my upcycle project, I will be making a paper mache stool. This stool will serve as footrest for me to use when I am relaxing while also providing a unique aesthetic. The actual structure will be made of remnant wood material found in my backyard or at a local wood cutting shop (Home Depot,…
Design Loop: Wood-Metal Structures
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…
Design Loop: Beer Bottles to Usable Glasses
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…
Design Loop: Cardboard laptop case
Idea change! My last post was about the creation of a cardboard lamp. Since then, I saw that a few other students had started their projects in the same topic, and I’m not that interested in it anymore, so I’ve decided to go in a new direction. This new idea was actually the first one…
Design Loop: Kinetic Walking Sculpture
I sat down, all my supplies purchased, everything planned out, and a prototype leg even made. But, as design goes, deviations from my planned path arose, and I was forced to rethink my route. I had my end goal, and my starting point. I believe that in design, you have at minimum a vague idea…
Design Loop: Corian Box
I have finally decided to follow through with my corian box design. The brainstorming process for this decision was fairly simple and easy. It was between this and the transparent light fixture. I found it hard to try and get the right amount of light to pass through the material of the light fixture so…
Design Loop: Woodwind Instrument
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…
Design Process for Upcycle Project
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…
Design Loop: Mount of the Holy Cross
Most design loops are linear or cyclical. Some follow a direct path and others allow for the designer to jump around the loop and follow or skip steps in the loop. The design loop I have drawn one that allows for various paths. In class I drew my design loop as the water cycle. I…
Design Loop: Plastic Bag Sandals
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,…
Design Loop: Hockey Stick Furniture
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…
Design Loop: Old Shoes
My design loop all started when I found the centerpiece of my project, for those of you not familiar with my project I am building a sort of trophy out of an old beloved pair of shoes. When I saw my old shoes I knew that my project was going to involve them. I had…
Design Loop: Cardboard Clothing
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…
Design Loop: Steampunk Jellyfish
I find that I like to plan things out in a very succinct, organized way, which I can probably attribute to the engineering background provided to me over the last few years. However, I also find that I become very nit-picky when something doesn’t go the way I imagine it to, which results in multiple, somewhat…
Design Loop: Upcycle Night Lamp
Hi all, This week, I want to share my design process for the upcycle project. It is pretty self explanatory so take a look! It shows how I went from identifying the stuff that would normally end up in my trash/recycle to something that I can actually use in my daily life. Feel free to…
Design Loop: Guitar Stand
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…
Design Loop: Acrylic Sculpture
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…
Design loop: Oyster box
For my upcycle project, I am creating a bowl to hold my keys and wallet that will look like an oyster. I started with thinking about what materials I had available before I came up with an idea on how to use it. My roommates and I had a lot of leftover aluminum cans and…
Design Loop: Nail and Thread Art
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.…
Design Loop: Trail Map Upcycling
Throughout my engineering career, I have been a part of many design processes, some successful and others, partial. One common trait throughout both is that they all have an end vision and goal that my team and I are reaching towards. The large discrepancy between success and partial success is how much these visions change…
Design Process
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…
