Week Seven
Cornwall Park
Site Visit
To re-situate within my research, starting again through Design Practice II, I visited my site, Cornwall Park, where I am designing. I harvested some dye ingredients to test, but more importantly, began observing the people who were using the space and putting myself in the shoes of what I would want as a product that connects me to the place around me.
I had the goal of creating a product that 'felt like' Cornwall Park, a way to take something from the park that captured its essence and emulate it.
I noticed that the park was a place of connection, with many people together, and that connection was shared among them and with the nature that surrounded them.
Natural Dyeing
Test Swatches
Using the natural dye ingredients I foraged and other ingredients available at the cafe, like kumara skins and onion skins, I created a variety of multi-ingredient dyes.
I used two different mordants and then created 'punnets' of natural dye combinations. There was some variation in colours, but minimal between mordants. The photos captured do not do justice to the subtle shade changes.
*Week Nine note: Upon looking back at this, I wonder if creating a reference of all of the different dyes at Cornwall Park could be a beneficial piece of work that would serve as an interesting interactive element for people visiting the park and as a starting point for my thesis.
Creating A Brief
The most important thing I created this week was a brief outlining what I aimed to achieve for my DP2 project.
I want to create a product that would go into the Cornwall Park gift shop, and I have their buy-in to make this happen as well.
I have set different criteria that need to be met in my final output, such as being made with only Cornwall Park materials and tied into an experiential touchpoint.
Creating this created a good context and grounding for what I want to achieve and gave me a clearer direction in the future
*Week Two Note: This brief has sent me into a realisation that I was not really aligned with the overarching goal I wanted to achieve, and I have to revisit this.
Reflection
The key to week one was getting back into making and reestablishing myself in my practice after a couple of weeks away. It was important to get started because I think best through making and articulating my ideas physically, whether that's as simple as a big brain dump. I need to get it out of my head and get my thoughts into something.
Next week, I aim to get more specific in my making and to achieve the objectives of my brief through quick-fire prototyping and observations.