The Enchanted Wine Bottles

Three wine bottles have been upcycled, and fairy lights are hanging from them from a reclaimed wooden surface. The project incorporates distinctive components like lace to improve the design and was motivated by the romantic aesthetic. The fabrication procedure is explained, and the finished item is assessed in light of its functionality and visual appeal. InspirationThe romantic style and the use of wine bottles and fairy lights in interior design served as inspiration for the project. While I used reclaimed wood and delicate lace to…

Upcycle Project: Romantic Aesthetic

I can’t help but be excited about the possibility to develop a genuinely romantic aesthetic as I work on this upcycled project. I adore the concept of repurposing something obsolete into something fresh and lovely while also contributing to the environment. I first collected three different-sized and-shaped wine bottles, making sure they were all clean. I’ve considered painting them in a muted colour scheme of ivory, pink, and lilac. I kept my eyes on the wood’s surface. After smoothing it out with sandpaper, I designed…

Upcycle Progress: Upcycled Jacket

At first I had no idea what I wanted to do for my up-cycle project, however I love clothes and I really want to get into making wearable technology because that is the future. I realized that I could not make wearables because I didn’t know how to build circuits (now I do!). So I went to ARC which is a thrift store and looked around for inspiration, and I stumbled upon a bag of alphabet fridge magnets. I loved the colors and they remind…

Upcycle Inspiration: Upcycled Fashion

The inspiration for my up-cycle project is up-cycled fashion which has gained popularity in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is notorious for being wasteful and unsustainable. Fast fashion is a term used for the process of creating cheap trendy clothes and and distributing them quickly so they are readily available to consumers. Fast fashion is a product of our consumerist society and capitalist economy which has allowed business conglomerates like Forever 21, FashionNova, H&M, etc to monopolize the fashion industry. They take trends from…

Upcycle Inspiration: Vintage Cigar Holder

My Upcycle project was inspired by a show called The Repair Shop. The Repair Shop highlights the repair and improvement of vintage antiques and cherished family items. The Repair Shop: www.netflix.com   In one of the first episodes, a vintage music player/cigar holder was brought in for refurbishment. While the musical aspect may not be feasible for this project, the base mechanics of the device were quite interesting. There is a dial at the top of the holder, with 6 panel walls on the sides…

Upcycle Inspiration: Spiral Staircase

As I mentioned in my last blog post, the base of my lamp is inspired by a spiral staircase. The spiral staircase I was directly inspired by was from a DIY (Do it yourself) video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd-Z7OTAjJ0, by Ben Uyeda on Facebook I saw a couple of months ago (You can find Ben Uyeda and his work at https://www.instagram.com/benjaminuyeda/?hl=en) . In the video he makes a spiral staircase out of thin sheets of wood as seen in the cover photo of this blog post. In my…

UpCycle Inspiration: Bright Board 2.0

My initial thought process for my project started with me looking around my room for something that I could re purpose into a cool design. I definitely wanted to focus on the design over the function for this project so that gave me the liberty to make just about anything. I am currently working on a cracked and broken longboard that I will be adding lights to in place of the wheels. I will also be re purposing shards of glass from a broken mirror…

Upcycle Progress: Leftover Cardboard

It took me a while to decide what material I was going to use for my upcycle project, but I think I have finally found the material I am going to use. It is abundant and easy to work with, and it’s my leftover Blue Apron boxes I’ve been saving for the past few months. Initially I was going to try and use 3D print scraps and failed prints I had sitting around that I was planning on recycling, but unfortunately I have less of…

Upcycle Final Report – Mount of the Holy Cross

Mount of the Holy Cross is one of the fourteen 14,000 foot mountains in the Sawatch Range of Colorado. The mountain looms above  ‘The Bowl of Tears’ at 14,011 feet. I’ve had the opportunity to visit this mountain two times. On my first visit my partner and I got stuck in a storm near the peak before getting lost in a thick fog and struggling to find our way back to the trailhead without summiting the mountain. On my second visit I was able to enjoy…

Upcycle Final Report: Whiskey Bottle Chandelier and Glasses

For my upcycle project, I created chandelier and matching tumbler glasses out of four, repurposed Jameson whiskey bottles.The aesthetic I wanted to capture was that of a traditional, quiet English/Irish pub. I wanted to embody the green/brown glass, deep red/walnut wooden textures, brass and copper fixtures, etc.. Everything that conveys the comfortable appeal of a pub in a refined yet aged aesthetic. Image source: http://streckers.dk/project/old-english-pub/ It has been mentioned in a few other posts, so I suppose I can say it again: the hardest part…

Upcycle Final Report: ‘I love lamp’ [L1]

Video of my presentation is HERE. Kept on the ground, the L1 produces a low-mood lighting experience. The bulb is covered in all directions which helps diffuse the light source and blocks the eye from catching direct light, which can be distracting. Providing two levels, the lamp can be used as a bedside table or shelf. This feature allows the user to customize their experience and meet multiple needs. One of the my favorite potential uses is as a soapbox for public speaking. Having 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. source: www.fascinations.com/metalearth That turned out to be rather untenable: trying to decide between cumbersome hand-cutting and expensive laser-cutting with lots of SolidWorks design hours. You can see below the loop back…

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. In 1980, Jansen began with 1500 combinations of 11 linkage sizes. Using a new technology at the time, a computer was utilized to dwindle the different configurations down to just…

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 metal, a wheel and other metallic office supplies. I ended up using far fewer metallic materials than I anticipated and instead used color to create the metallic look and effect.…

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 of what you want to have as a product. It can be as vague or concise as you desire, but it is still an end goal. You may deviate from…

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 did this because I was inspired to include a mountain (since that is the theme of my upcycle project) but also because the water cycle can see has various paths…

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 random design iterations. Both observations are reflected in the design loop that I prescribed myself and the one that I actually followed while creating my Upcycle project. I struggled quite…

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 my parents also fill a large bucket with empty soda cans before taking them to be recycled.  I thought about making some furniture out of it, but I lacked the…

Upcycle Progress: Jar Terrariums

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. That turned out to be rather pricey and difficult to manage. So another idea came to me when I was going through my tupperware—I have a lot of empty jars. I’ve always wanted to make a terrarium. OMG LET’S MAKE A JAR TERRARIUM! And since…

Upcycle Update: A Tribute to “El Pulpo Mechanico”

El Pulpo Mechanico: Duane Flatmo Inspired by the giant, steampunk octopus of Burning Man “El Pulpo Mechanico”, I have decided to use steampunk as the aesthetic of my project and build a much smaller scale jellyfish. My current plans for materials include (but are not limited to) light bulbs, guitar strings, scrap metal, a wheel and other metallic office supplies. The jellyfish will be a purely aesthetic piece and serve somewhat as a tribute to the idea of “El Pulpo Mechanico”. I plan to end…

Upcycle Progress: 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.  While visiting my grandma a few weekends, I noticed that her bedroom had an ocean aesthetic.  She had a window curtain was of an underwater scene, with dolphins and fish…

Upcycle Update: Ukulele in Progress

For my Upcycle Project, I have decided to design a ukulele.  Given my love for music, this object was a natural fit.  My original intent was to make a violin, but in evaluating the feasibility of designing a functional instrument, I found the ukulele to be slightly less complicated, which will allow me greater freedom to experiment with aesthetics. One of my deepest inspirations for this project stems from my fascination with the Landfill Harmonic.  Not only is their ensemble name in itself a work…

Upcycle Progress: Mount of the Holy Cross

Mount of the Holy Cross is one of the fourteen 14,000 foot mountains in the Sawatch Range of Colorado. The mountain looms above  ‘The Bowl of Tears’ at 14,011 feet. I’ve had the opportunity to visit this mountain two times. On my first visit my partner and I got stuck in a storm near the peak before getting lost in a thick fog and struggling to find our way back to the trailhead without summiting the mountain. On my second visit I was able to enjoy…

Upcycle Thoughts: Kinetic Walking Sculpture

Theo Jansen has selflessly given his “11 holy numbers” away for the public to use however they see fit (See my previous post “Aesthetic Explorations: Theo Jansen and His Strandbeest” for more information on his creations). Shown below, the 11 numbers for a linkage system for a leg to be powered by a crank. I would like to use his design to create my own walking “Strandbeest” out of Popsicle sticks (if they are strong enough) or thin wood. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Strandbeest_Leg_Proportions.svg Below is someone else’s attempt…

Aesthetic Explorations: Theo Jansen and His Strandbeest

Theo Jansen, a dropout physicist become artist, has created his very own aesthetic. In 1980, Jansen began with 1500 combinations of 11 linkage sizes. Using a new technology at the time, a computer was utilized to dwindle the different configurations down to just one golden combination, the “eleven holy numbers”. These numbers allowed for the most efficient, elegant, and stable motion of what would thereafter become the locomotion of the Strandbeest. Watching his PVC creatures move both invokes curiosity and mesmerizes. They appear to move…

Television Liquor Cabinet

Vision: For my up cycle project, I wanted to create something not only visually appealing, but also useful. I have had my eye on an old television set, faux wood and all, collecting dust in my girlfriend’s parent’s basement for a little while. With a little searching through the internet, I was inspired to make the television set into a retro liquor cabinet. Initially, I thought it would be cool to turn it into a fish tank, but quickly realized that the shell was not…

Origami Nightstand

I wanted to design and create something useful for my upcycle project. I have wanted a nightstand for a while, so I decided to make my own. The desk in my bedroom is covered with stacks of homework assignments and exams from last semester, and I wondered if there was some way to incorporate old papers into my design. Origami was brought up in class once, and brought back childhood memories of folding paper cranes and boxes. So, I decided to figure out if there…

Bicycle Component Clock

  Original Inspiration Intro Almost a year ago I visited a friend and saw a bicycle disc rotor hung on the wall. I had seen a few pieces of bicycle art before but this caught my eye and I walked over for a closer look. It was a functional and clean looking wall clock. The way the creator used the shine of the rotor and the overall clean, but decidedly bicycle-centric, look inspired me to add a bicycle part clock to my project list. Unfortunately,…

Decorative Aspen Branch Light

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 mind a doily vest, maybe I would even have dyed it a cool color. So I went to the thrift store hoping to pick some up. I didn’t find any…

The Bird’s Nest

My project has come a long way from my brainstorming and loose materials into the upcycling design it is now. Below I explain my process and my goals and desires for this project and how I felt I reached my goals or not. Reality vs. Imagined My actual process was very different than how I imagined the process to be and also differed from the design process we created in class. I started out how I would normally begin my design process with my other…

Upcycle Progress: Origami Nightstand

I still have a pile of old homework assignments from last year, so I thought about what I could do with all of that paper (besides throw it away). I also happen to need a nightstand, so I began thinking of ways to use paper. I used to dabble in origami as a kid, so what if I made a nightstand that looked like a large origami box? There are a lot of origami box designs, so I had to find a design that both looked good…

Turning Old Bicycle Parts into a Clock

I have always wanted to make artwork, useful or not, out of old or broken parts from bikes. I’m not quite sure why but I really like the look of rotors, cassettes, hubs, wheels and cranks; probably more than complete bikes or beautiful frames. There seems to be so much effort put into their design (although some have pretty crap design) and manufacture. Combined with the effort to extract and refine the metal to make the intricate parts, my heart pangs a little seeing them in the…

Retro Television Cabinet

For my up cycle project, I had my eye on an old television laying around in my girlfriend’s parent’s basement. With a little help from the internet, I was inspired to make the TV into a liquor cabinet. It’s been collecting dust for at least 15 years, so I figured that I could bring new life into it. The 1970’s TV Gutted and ready to be up cycled. Old CRT TVs are notorious for keeping their dangerously high voltage charge for months, if not years…

Broken China Tea Cup Mosaic Progress

I am really interested in mosaics: the designs, the applications, and the methodology. x x A friend gave me a beautiful china tea cup and saucer for my birthday, which my cat, of course, knocked off the counter and broke. Since then I have held on to the pieces, hoping for an opportunity to use them in a project. I thrifted this old clasp-purse and thought I could embellish it with a mosaic pattern of the broken china shards. I have been working on designing…

Explosive Nutcracker

Last year for Christmas one of my friends gave me a decommissioned or unloaded grenade as a gift.  Since getting a chance to play with it, the triggering system has fascinated me.  The system is very simple.  The pin holds on the lever (or spoon) which holds back a spring loaded striker.  When the pin is pulled and the spoon released the striker swings around to the priming charge which activates the grenade’s fuse.  I have been very impressed with the amount of force supplied…