Week 11

Had a one-to-one tutorial with Jenny this week who suggested that, given the fact that there are only a few weeks before Christmas, I concentrate on the coffee rings element of the project.  I had hoped to be able to develop the moss cushions as this was an area of the project I felt quite excited and motivated about.  However, the coffee rings are much further on and I have to admit that it would be unrealistic to try and develop the moss cushions to completion in the time left, although if I have time left would love to dvelop this further.
Furthermore, Jenny pointed out that I could probably use the files I already have for the coffee rings, saving me valuable time.

I thought about using the coffee rings to create a set of coasters but I'm not sure whether this is too obvious.  I'd like the coasters to incorporate some of the marks, imperfections, chips found on the edges of tables and other items but am unsure as to how I'd go about this.  It also occurred to me that the shapes of the coasters did not have to be uniform and this would add more interest.  The range could be developed further to include place mats that use imprints/stains left by plates and cutlery.  Might try creating some of these stains if I have a chance this week.

Week 10

Most of this week has been taken up with the HCC assignment which is due in a couple of weeks.  The subject I've chosen is that of the pastoral and how this influenced suburban housing.  I've chosen this as I hope not only to discuss the styles of the exteriors of the housing but also the interiors and how furniture and other interior products reflect the pastoral e.g ornamental objects such as those produced by Beswick and Sylvac.  I felt that this reflected my current project in practice 3 of trying bringing the outside in.  With my current project in mind, I also thought it might be interesting to discuss how the idea of the pastoral is still around today and provide modern examples. I had a tutorial with Jane Webb who confirmed that I would be okay to approach the assignment in this way and suggested I use interior magazines of the day, such as House and Garden, as starting points.  I thought it would be interesting to contrast these directly with modern magazines such as Country Living etc.

Further to last week's laser cutting I stained the cut-out coffee rings to provide a contrast when slotted back into the MDF, however the effect was hardly visible and the stain needs to be a lot darker.  The moss cushions have proven a bit of a nightmare to upholster and slot back in; neither the fabric nor the filling will stay in place and the cut-out shapes themselves are either too big or too small to slot back in snugly.  I think I need to use small tacks in order to attach the material to the MDF or at least some stronger glue.  For the few seconds when one of the cushions does stay in place I am pleased with the result but it's fair to say that this idea needs much more development.

Week 9

I finally got around to using the laser cutter this week.  I spoke to Adan the CAM technician initially to see how I would go about using the laser-cutter for marquetry purposes.  It wouldn't be possible to produce an inlay on the laser cutter so 2 pieces of material would need to be used; one to cut the pieces from, another to provide a base. Although it may have been possible to create an inlay on the router, this would require a smaller "head", which as well as being expensive would be likely to break easily.

I created some coffee rings in my sketchbook and after scanning the images in I cleaned the images up an traced them using Illustrator.  I then used Vectorworks to move and place the individual rings on the canvas.  I had used a very similar process for creating my paper lantern designs last year.

I also cut some circular shapes with the intention of filling and upholstering these to create moss "cushions" which could then be slotted back into the piece they had been cut from.  The idea was to create the impression of moss growing on the MDF/ply.

Week 8

I got a book out from the library on lichens but also found one on funghi, some of the images in which are lovely. I thought that the clusters of small mushrooms could be reproduced in the metal workshop, in a similar way to how the acorn cups were produced in the workshop.  The mushrooms are pictured at the base of a tree and likewise I thought a metal representation could be placed similarly; at the base of a lamp or coat stand.

Another image that inspired me was the bracket funghi which would translate very easily into shelving.  I had seen birch trunks featured in someone's home in a recent issue of Elle Decoration and I like the idea of fixing shelving to the log in order to emulate the funghi.  Shelving produced using a material like copper or brass would provide an interesting contrast but it may be problematic fixing the shelves to the log without ruining its appearance.