Upcycle Final Reports 2020

These are descriptions of the first project of the semester. Students were asked to create an artifact from low value or waste materials. See the Upcycle specifications and critique method for more details.

Upcycle Final Report // Cardboard Lasercut

Inspiration My inspiration for this project came from a few sources: the first being the vast amount of laser cut mandala art that exists on the internet.  I have always been fascinated with how machines can allow us to create products of complex geometries that are perfectly symmetrical with ease, and I wanted to use…

Final Project

My Final Project blog post is actually on my personal blog and here is the link: https://victoriarios.myportfolio.com/aesthetics-of-design-final-project

Upcycle Final Report: A Tribute to Ovechkin

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Inspiration In the early stages of this project I had trouble finding inspiration for what I wanted to work on. I began to go through my old photos to maybe find that spark. It hit me when I found the photos when I witness the Washington Capitals win the Stanley cup in D.C. in 2018.…

Upcycle Final Report: Scrap Warrior

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Inspiration My inspiration for my upcycle project is two-fold; I first got inspired over Christmas break of 2019-2020. I was reading The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien and I loved his description of all of his characters and the setting of middle earth. I could almost believe that I was actually there. The second came from…

Upcycle Final Report: The Everything Drawer

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For my Upcycle project, I wanted to create something that utilized materials found from my everything drawer. The everything drawer is a commonplace for items that do not have a  designated place to go.  The items placed in the everything drawer either are placed there and then never touched again, or are placed in the…

Upcycle Progress – Wine Cork Map of New Zealand

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With regards to my upcycling project, I have already acquired all of my materials as of 02/04. All of the wine corks were shipped in and I am now in process of cutting the backdrop for the wine corks to be secured to. With the backdrop, I am considering instead to utilize cardboard (due to…

Upcycle Final Report 2020

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Introduction In the Aesthetics of Design class here at CU Boulder, our first project is to design something with a specific aesthetic using only upcycled materials such as cardboard, scrap wood, scrap plastic, etc. When I first started this project, I wanted to make something small (something I could carry) and also something I would use…

Upcycle Final Report: Fast Food Wrapper Sculpture

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For my Upcycle project, I had initially wanted to work with fast food wrappers in some manner from the get go – taking inspiration from art and sculptures from other artists who have worked with a similar medium; that is, with objects or materials that might typically be considered garbage. A sculpture using fast food…

Upcycling final project: Plastic bottle caps & Polka dots

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It’s just hard to upload pictures onto this site, so you can check them out at :https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nfvkl7p3Ltj-a_64PLm_OcqbC4G3kT0u Original Sketch&thought: I started out with quite a lot of ideas for this upcycling project. But after I talked with one of my teacher from another class, I decided to focus on using plastic bottle caps for this…

Upcycle Final Report 2020: Laser Cut Cards

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Vision Magic the Gathering has been a hobby of mine that I’ve rediscovered in the past year. However, a side effect of printing cards that are “rare” is that there is an order of magnitude more cards that are worth almost nothing and are never used. However these cards still have breathtaking art commissioned from…

Coat Hanger With Shotgun Shells

The upcycling project I decided to do is a coat hanger with shotgun shells. Initially at the beginning of the semester, I struggled a lot to come up with an idea that I like. When Prof. Hertzberg introduced the upcycling project, I quickly thought about shotgun shells and how to use them. When I did…

Upcycle Project: Final Report

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My initial idea was to do something along the lines of up-cycled fashion however I did not know exactly what I wanted to do whether it be a hat, a purse, a dress or pants, etc. I decided to go out to a thrift store to get some ideas. Thrifting is a favorite hobby of…

Upcycle Final Report: Portable Northern Lights

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  My final result project is a northern lights inspired candle holder/cover.  The change from a sun-catcher to a candle cover stemmed from two events; a classmates blog post suggestion and candles I’ve been gifted.  Someone suggested I add water to my project, to help capture as well as disperse sunlight. I loved this suggestion,…

Upcycle Final Report: Kawaii

“Kawaii” or “cute” is an aesthetic that has become widespread throughout Japan, and it started gaining traction as early as the 1950s. Rune Naito is credited with being one of the earliest pioneers of this aesthetic, with the creation of his “Rune Girl” characters, defined by their large heads and baby-faced features. Big eyes and…

Upcycle Final Report: Memory Box

My inspiration for this project was found by simply walking through Goodwill. My grandmother passed in November and she has been on my mind a lot lately. When I went into Goodwill, a lot of the things in there reminded me of her. She was an adorable British grandmother who always made sure that her…

Upcycle Final Report: Plastic Spoon Lotus

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Introduction / Vision I started this project with an initial idea of using old paper wrappers and folding them into origami cranes and making a project out of that. This idea worked well with my desired aesthetic of “Chinese”. Thankfully however, after doing more research and idea searching, I came across an idea to make…

Upcycle Final Report – Robotic Foldable Table

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Abstract The up-cycling project in this class, Aesthetics of Design is all about how you select leftover or unused materials and come up with a creative idea of building something using all of that, combined with an aesthetic of your choice. This in turn recycles the materials and creates an unmatched, blooming idea that was…

Upcycle Final Report // Kensue Kiatoukaysy

Kensue Kiatoukaysy Aesthetics of Design 2/11/2020 Upcycle Project: Captain America Cardboard Shield “Sanderson, Peter, et al. “Captain America.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11 Nov. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Captain-America.” Aesthetic Choice: Aesthetics of Popular Culture Abstract The goal of this project is exactly as it sounds; the purpose is to create some sort of structure, artwork, aesthetic…

Upcycle Final Report 2020: Cardboard Roller-coaster

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Inspiration: My inspiration stems from some of the videos I watched when I was younger. Numberphile gave me a lot of math, science, and engineering inspiration. Stable rollers was one of the very first videos I watched and it amazed me how beautiful, fun, and creative engineering can be. While MarbleLympics is less about the…

Upcycle Final Report: Papier-Mâché Plants

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Vision My initial vision involved creating a minimalist planter out of mycelium, which is basically the roots of mushrooms. Mycelium is a really fascinating material because it can be grown in any shape, is low cost (easily upcycled), is completely biodegradable, and when it is baked, it becomes very durable. I was familiar with mycelium…

Upcycle Final Report: Egg Shell Egg

Ideation With carved egg shells and clay sculptures covered in egg shells as my initial inspirations, I set out to create a sculpture out of egg shells. Frankly, it was a masochistic challenge to my patience, but in the end, I feel proud and glad to have made something that is not necessarily useful but…

Upcycle Final Report – Recreating the Canon

For this project my vision was to create a very simplistic resemblance of the Canon Eos R series camera. The function is not really an aspect as much as the form. For the form I wanted a general shape and configuration to resemble the camera. I was trying for a desktop styled symbol. I want…

UpCycle Final Report 2020: Hemp Glow by Benjamin Robles

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In the beginning, there was darkness… then God said “let there be light.” We were given this “UpCycle” assignment at the beginning of the class. To make something out of cheap or even better, recycled materials. In the description of the assignment, there was a line that read, “it is okay to do art for…

Upcycle 2020 Final Report (TinFoil and Spoons)

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Upcycle 2020. Balance Benjamin Chang Introduction When starting this upcycling project I knew from the beginning I didn’t want to purchase any material of any sort. However, it wasn’t out of the question of gathering through asking around looking for resources to supply a project. When looking for inspiration I came across an installation artist…

Upcycle Final Report: Brake Rotor Clock

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Vison The vision for my project came to me as I was about to fall asleep one night. Originally I thought that I was going to craft a bowl or cup out of a log, but it didn’t feel quite right. I was thinking of other things but couldn’t nail anything down until an idea…

Upcycle Final Report 2020: Pocket-Sized Sketchpad

Upcycle Inspiration While we were discussing the importance of doodling within lecture, I realized that while I have a full-size notebook in my backpack dedicated to this course, I wanted another smaller sketchpad that I can carry in my pocket for whenever inspiration strikes me. In the context of upcycling, creating pages for this notebook…

Upcycle Final Report 2020 : Garden Planter

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For my upcycle project I started with looking at making some sort of clothing out of other clothing that I no longer wear. This idea led me to the internet where I started looking at other upcycle projects. This is where I stumbled upon people making planter boxes out of old household items, so I…

Upcycle Final Report: Mosaic

  The goal for this upcycle project is to create an artifact that follows an aesthetic, and construct it mostly out of recycled material. For my project, I decided to create a mosaic art piece out of broken glass, grout, and an old, 2′ x 2′ board. The piece follows an abstract vision of a…

Bonsai to Big Guy

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Dear reader, I would like to summarize how this project went with an original haiku: A bonsai and me, Was not meant to be, a tree; Saguaro cactus. So dearest reader, if you cannot tell by my poem we had quite a metamorphosis since my last post and my bonsai has transformed into a saguaro…

Upcycle Final Report: Woven Rope Rug

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This project of the upcycle has been a very fun and interesting challenge! I started out by throwing around ideas about many different types of materials and designs before I started thinking about who I am and what materials I already owned. This was a big idea as I wanted the item I chose to…

Upcycle Final Report: Water Bottle Lighting

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Inspiration I wanted to get real use out of the artifact I made for this class, so I deliberated for a while on what I could make that I would use daily. Unfortunately, my apartment came with no overhead lighting fixtures, so the only light in my room comes from a lamp in the corner…

Upcycle Final Report: Bottle Caps

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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…

Upcycle Final Report: A Modern Take on Vintage Cigar Holders

Inspiration The original inspiration for my Upcycle project came from a Netflix 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…

Upcycle Final Report: Brass Guitar

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For my upcycle project I initially had a very hard time thinking about what material I wanted to use and what aesthetic I wanted to incorporate. To me choosing the material would some what point me in the right direction for what I wanted to make, and what aesthetics to use. I knew that I…

Upcycling Final Report 2020: Street Art

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My inspiration for my Upcycling project came from the art collection I started this summer. Driving around Denver I always so there incredible and colorful street art and wanted to explore this aesthetic for a while now. Urban and black communities have expressed themselves through graffiti and street art for a long time and I…

Upcycle Final Report 2020: Camera Bag Planter

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Abstract The upcycle project is intended to get our feet wet in creative thinking. Its purpose is to create something artistic or functional or both out of unwanted materials. This means creating the project out of as many reused materials as possible, and trying to eliminate the need for purchasing parts or supplies. I started…

Upcycle Final Product – Mobius Cube (Table?)

Vision This project began with the idea of making a side table which fit a modern/industrial aesthetic. To do this, I originally planned to create a unique weldment using recycled steel tubing for the table’s structure and then build a tabletop out of wood cutoffs. Since the materials I planned to use were dimensional building…

Upcycle Report – Wine Cork Map of New Zealand

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INSPIRATION: The inspiration for my upcycle project is my mom. Being that she loves trendy art that is suitable for display in our house, I figured I would create her a wall piece to hang in our house. My mom is originally from New Zealand (hence the reason the featured image is the New Zealand…

Upcycled Two-Way Wallet

Inspiration https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AzUjx1s8rn91hskv_eb0iJPFuWh4qG0L/view?usp=sharing For my upcycle project I have created a two-way wallet out of a recycled leather purse. The inspiration for this project originally came from duct tape wallets that I used to make and sell in middle school. The type of wallets I made were able to open in 2 directions, where the geometry…

Upcycle Final Report 2020: Electronics Jewelry

I have a considerable amount of electronics waste in my house. From motherboards to hard drives to printers, a combination of my work in IT and my roommate’s propensity for gathering E-waste has lead to a house filled with useless gadgets. My goal with this project was to turn the E-waste that I am so…

Upcycle Final Report: Vinyl Wallet

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I. INTRODUCTION: INSPIRATION This report will look at the design process of an upcycled product, made up of re-purposed materials. My Upcycled vinly billboard wallet project first began when I looked through one of Peter McKinnon’s videos, “The Best Minimalistic EDC Wallet” [¹], after discovering it from a recent aesthetic exploration blog post that Christopher…

Upcycle Project Final Report: Sawhorse Bookcase

Abstract The purpose of this project is to look at upcycling. Upcycling is the process of making something useful out of discarded materials. Examples of upcycling can be seen all around us if we just stop and look. These can be things such as art instillation made of old tires, tables at breweries made of…

Cardboard Art

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Inspiration My inspiration for this project came from a bit of digging, a bit of Pinterest browsing, and an ever-growing pile of recycling in my apartment that was begging to be repurposed. I’m a lover of art; I try my best to practice when I have the time in various forms. Something that I’ve always…

Upcycling Project 2020: Steampunk Fastener Steam Engine

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Abstract  The upcycling projects goal is to take some material, that may have been leftover or is no longer used, and create something that follows an aesthetic and in turn increase its perceived value to the creator.  Some examples include creating furniture out of used cardboard, making a lamp out of plastic spoons, or maybe…

Upcycle Final Report 2020: Aery Plush

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Inspiration When I first started this project, I wished to make a plush, and my original inspiration began with Hello Kitty [1] and recycling the old fabric that I kept from my youth and from what my sister did not need anymore, mostly because I did not keep much to upcycle other than old clothes…