Week Nine
Formative Presentation
Before presenting, I was lost about the direction of my project. I talked last week in my reflection about 'the hat problem' and ensuring I situate myself correctly in this project.
I presented my formative work to articulate the 'kerfuffle' I was in and to seek feedback from teachers. I got two helpful pieces of feedback that drove my making. thinking and research this week:
1) Too Broad! You need to narrow down your project and find your core why. Agreed, however, I think it doesn't mean getting rid of these different tensions pulling on my projects, but more so defining them to be more digestible
2) The constraint of cost isn't needed right now, and you can consider that later. This is the best piece of feedback I got because I wholeheartedly disagree. What makes my work interesting is that it considers several steps and examines the constraints of modern Western capitalist systems and how to use wool more effectively within them. This means I need to lean more into these and make them a key part of my work.
Drip Coffee Thinking
To better understand my thoughts, I tried to put them in a metaphor. I imagined that my output is a cup of coffee, but I have all these constraints I am placing on it, like filters, to create a well-thought-out output. I also imagined that each filter added something to the output.
The areas were: Use more natural materials, 'cost of convenience', 'you don't care what you don't know about', involvement creates connection, place-based connection, tangible object, elevation through innovation.
While this helped me see my thoughts as, like, my goal starts with using more natural materials and ends with innovation, which shows the weight, it still doesn't accurately portray what's in my head. It is a tough task, communicating a revolving ball of ideas into a digestible piece of information, but that's what a master's is all about
Laser Cutting
Last week, I talked about choosing digital felting because it was easy to access and worked for this short project. While that is true, the other reason is that a coarse fibre is harder to turn into yarn, so felting it is a better choice for its purpose. It is working within its material constraints. However, a felt is not a novel product, and it does not capture the essence of the park.
I had seen Deanna from our class laser-etching textures into acrylic, and in DP1 I had explored a lot of mixed media stuff, so I wanted to combine these two ideas to create something that would turn a felted piece into something that felt more like Cornwall Park.
I took photos around the park and created silhouettes with them, then laser-etched them into the felt. Despite a very bad smell, it took to the fibre well.
I cut the sheet into many different shapes to test potential products. I also timed the felts; the coaster-sized shapes took 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Swatch Tests
When taking the images for the textures, I also took the dye ingredients, so that I could colour the samples with the dye ingredient that had created them.
I wanted to do the dyeing second because it would get rid of the smell the laser created, and also give me an idea of how well the patterns would stay after washing.
I used eucalyptus, lichen, and tanekahu dyes, and very small quantities to test the minimum viable amounts to create a colour. I am conscious of the finite resources of Cornwall Park and ensuring that if this project reaches a large scale in their gift shop, they have the materials available.
In hindsight, I was too stingy with the materials, such as using 1g of lichen for 400g of water, but it was an interesting test nonetheless. In the 3g lichen test, you can begin to see orange coming through, whereas in 1,2, there is almost no colour. Tanekahu is staying relatively consistent, so the quantity needs to be increased, as with Euclapytus leaves.
Felting Machine Test Pouch
I was inspired by the many bags I had seen at conrwall park to create a smaller-scale version of an item that could hold something. My mentor had also shown me a pouch his daughter had wet-felted, so I was interested to see if I could recreate it on a digital felt machine.
I did two tests- one with separate pieces and one where I folded a longer piece up. I placed a piece of synthetic felt between the wool, hoping it wouldn't stick, so I could remove it. It did not work. However, I found that I could place it in the machine, stop the rollers so it was half in, only getting felted on the edge, then reverse the rollers and pull it back out. I did this on both sides, and it worked great, creating a functioning pouch.
*Week 12 Note* At the time, I wasn't quite sure what its purpose was, so I wasn't as high on it, but I think this product has a lot of potential for the shop as a simple gift in the future. I will revisit through my business.
Reflection
It felt good to make more and make differently. I wonder if a lot of my confusion was tied to being in my head and not making. The laser-etched texture has unlocked a new direction for me and created something interesting and grounding for the park. Plus, something I haven't seen many other people do with the laser etching onto wool. It is also a speedy process, so it would be a viable method to get into the shop, and I have an industry laser-cutting connection if I want to scale beyond university.
I need to lean into my material-driven design methodology as a guiding point and work within the constraints of the material I have, like the felting. There is an interesting discussion about Jonathan Chapman's emotionally durable design, and how, as a designer, I can allow for more room for people to connect with an object. Even though I can't create someone's experiences for them, I can create a product that invites an experience. For example, if I go to the gift shop and I see a product with different textures that is accompanied by a map of where that tree is in the park, its history and why we used it for natural dyes, maybe I go and check it out, and that enriches my connection to the park, therefore creating a memory encapsulated inside the product I just bought. Food for thought.