Cryptic Moth

I was procrastinating today looking at Core77's Ultimate Gift Guide and came across Cryptic Moth Productions. They are über awesome. Two guys put together this documentary, "Addicted to Plastic" that they traveled around the world investigating the major issues involving plastics in the environment. They also blogged about their whole experience and so far I read through their 3 weeks spent in India. They have mentioned people and places that are trying to do something about the accumulation of plastic and the issues that arise while doing it. Like the NPO, Conserve India, that has locals pick out all the plastic bags, wash them, and organize them by color to then send out for processing to make another material, HRP: handmade recycled plastic. They take the HRP and make funky accessories like shoes, purses, and jewelry. I'm not really into the aesthetic they chose, but the idea sounds very familiar...


and of course they don't just make cool looking fashion items, they also make sure to tell you that:
"With the support of the Asian Development Bank, we are currently working on a project to generate income, through the production of this material, for the less advantaged communities in Delhi."
That is just reinforcing what I already know: my project needs a cause. It needs some reason/problem to solve...grrr...i have no idea what to do about that. Maybe I'll try reading a news magazine or something to find some great cause that my designs can be geared toward.

Post-Review

I have lots of thoughts regarding my review, but I don't feel like getting into it right now.

Tonight I am going to make a plastic bag recycling receptacle out of plastic bags. I'm going to use this as an opportunity to use the text and images already on the bags. Plus I'm going to see what happens when I write on it with permanent marker. Can permanent marker withstand intense heat on plastic?

oh and...plastic bag flower pots? <---that's a reminder for me

MDPE

thought of another project name...MDPE (medium-density polyethylene)
it's the plastic that some plastic bags are made of. It could also be named LDPE for low-density, but I'm not consistently using one type of bag, so it could get confusing....Still working on it.

Working on my presentation today. Scanned a bunch of ironed bags into the computer...not sure if the scans are useful yet.

Also found these books by Chris Lefteri: Plastic and Plastics 2 REALLY HELPFUL in understanding plastic :-)

Heard back from the plastic bag manufacturers that I thought were in Ann Arbor, turns out they aren't local and are not really interested in helping me whatsoever.

Weekend Blitz

This weekend I made a bag. Yes, a bag out of plastic bags...don't ask. It took me like 6 hours to make! I just felt the need to make something and a bag seemed simple and straightforward. Without trying, I managed to make it the most nonfunctional bag possible, but right now that doesn't really matter. I like the aesthetic that came from it and it motivated me to find lots of other sources for plastic bags. I collected a bunch from Whole Foods, also going to Kroger to get them out of their collection bins, I put out collection bins and flyers in the IP studios, I am collecting from my mom's co-workers, and tomorrow I will go to the A&D office to see if I can put a bin in there too. This should set me up with a good stash of bags to work from. When I iron the bags together, I like to keep the same type of bag together. The end piece looks much more refined if I control the bag pattern more. Live and learn.

Now, I am working on my Review presentation and I really don't know what it should be. I'm going to look on ctools for some guidance. If there isn't any, then I guess I will definitely need some help tomorrow in class. I'm a little freaked out about this review, I don't think it is going to go well. eeek!

Also, you may notice I changed the name of my blog. My dad told me the other day that he named me Clio because he felt it would make an excellent brand name. So, I'm trying it out for size.

work work work

I have decided to just update my coroflot website for the professional practice. I will wait to make my own website next semester in that mini course I am taking. Click here to see the coroflot site.

This weekend I am devoting all my time to IP and I'm really excited to do some stuff!

More Inspiration

Got this great Texan artist, Virginia Fleck, from Hattie this past weekend. She was featured on the Found website. She uses plastic bags, oh boy!



http://design-crisis.com/?p=184

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/11/reused_plastic_bag_mandala_art.html?CMP=OTC-5JF307375954

The Saga Continues...

Still working on making my website. It is not progressing very well and will most definitely not be done for the professional packet due on Thursday to John Luther. I worked 3 hours this morning on the website and then also worked on my abstract. I want to have an abstract written before the end of class today so that I can have the profs look over it.

Over Christmas break, I am going to contact millions of people to try and set up a remote internship in product design for next semester. Who can't use free help?

I've also flushed out a defines end goal for my IP. I want to make large room dividers for hanging and for on the floor, could be one convertible or two different ones. Using a wooden frame and stretching plastic bags over them. I want to set up little plastic bag recycling places in the art school to give me a larger pool of bags to use. This weekend I plan on working on a study of different styles, colors, and layers of bags that I can incorporate in my final product. That way I can have a pallette to choose from. This will show the review commitee next week that I have really put a lot into working with these bags.

Website Saga

Flash is confusing.

Correction: The Flash tutorials I am doing are confusing. (I think they were written by someone who isn't very familiar with the English language and they skip some key steps. Gotta love free online tutorials.)

So I'm still going to learn it, but not so fervently. In the meantime, I am going to build my website in Dreamweaver. Plus I registered for this cool minicourse called Argumentation: Using Web Sites to Make Your Case for next semester all about building a website, arguing (?), and all that good stuff. It meets on Friday (gah! class on friday! the sacrifices I make for school!) Hopefully it will be more helpful than my joke digital class freshman year.

Web-er-site

I recently began my the re-evolutionary (I may have made that word up) process of making my personal website. For me, it is similar to running around and banging my head against lots of different brick walls, repeatedly. I 'm not making that analogy to show the pain, because it's not painful, it's just annoying. I have all these ideas for websites and I can't just stick to one, I keep starting over and redesigning again and again. HOW DO I STICK TO ONE DESIGN!?

I should have prefaced this by saying that I did not sleep last night. I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the entire night sewing for IPD! I'm wearing the same thing from yesterday, it's great. (Too much information perhaps?)

Anyway, I worked from 9am-12pm today on my website. I'm making some progress, sort of. Going to seek some outside opinions to solidify one of my thousands of ideas.

Also been playing around with making panel things with plastic bags sandwiched between wood/cardboard. Tomorrow I'm learning how to stretch canvas, so then I can try and stretch plastic bags. Tonight or tomorrow, if I ever go home, I also what to experiment with boiling bags, but in order to do that I have to go buy an old pot at Salvation Army or something. One of the GSI's, Sarah, has mentioned it a couple of times and I'm really curious to see what happens.

Stephen Burks

I went to an amazing lecture last night at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Stephen Burks, from Readymade Projects in NYC, came and talked all about his work. He does/did a lot of work in the fragrance market (with Coty and such) but there is a whole other side to his work. He has been doing projects with Artecnica's Design with Conscience, eco-friendly design for the Cappellini Love collection, and Rajboori Fine Silk Textiles in made in India. All these projects are outsourced to under-developed communities and are providing jobs and building the economy. Although this is a controversial issue (going into countries and using their unique crafts into international design objects), Burks believes in design as a means for economic transformation. And one thing that really stuck with me is that brands capatalize on the value of culture. So if you can capture an experience or a part of culture in design, there is truth in the design and people will like it.

Here are some of the things I really liked:

The above was designed by Burks and a local South African artisan, then produced in South Africa. Below, is a table design from Burks that is made from shredded magazines and a non-toxic hardener over a carboard structure and stuffed with more magazines inside to weight it down. (one of my favs)

Midterm Comments

John sent me another sweet link of this company that makes products in conjunction with artisan communities around the world. It was really good to see these scooter tire baskets because it made me consider incorporating other materials with the plastic bags. I had considered this before, and now I want to start experimenting. I thought about stretching the ironed bags to a wooden frame.

I made another envelope this week. I also figured out how to remove the ink from the bags. Lets say I don't want the bag from Marshalls to say "Marshalls" on it, i just rub it with some mineral spirits upstairs in the print room, and wo-baam ink is gone! Oh, and I also made a sole for the plastic bag shoe.

In response to the midterm comment of "what kind of products will you make?": I don't know yet. I'm taking it one product at a time because as I finish one, it will inspire new ideas for the next. I am definitely commited to this project. And I don't really want to change the world by eliminating all the plastic bags from the environment. I just want to inspire people to reuse things creatively.

Final Look

top view












side view














underside

now I just need a rainy day

Ok, so this picture is 1am Monday morning. This is not the final product...but it documents the point when I got excited and made Kristin take pictures because it was resembling an umbrella.


The umbrella is complete! It took me 5 more hours on Sunday to get it almost done. Then a little while today to finish sewing a few spots. I turned it into the the student exhibition and I just hope people don't look too closely at it. I am not proud of the craftsmanship, I see this piece more as practice. I didn't even dare try to close it...I was afraid it would rip into a million pieces and I would cry.

I now realize that I didn't take a picture of the final product...bummerrr. I will go hunt it down tomorrow and do some glamour shots.

Looks like crap

So I worked on the umbrella today for 5 hours because I really wanted to finish it. Unfortunately, I did not finish it.

I started ironing all the panels together into the giant hexagon shape. One of the major problems I ran into was that as you layer more and more plastic together, it gets really stiff. Stiff is not something you want when making an umbrella. So now all the panels are attached and the thing looks pretty much like trash. I'm going to keep on going with it despite its terrible asthetic. Tomorrow I will finish it so I can enter it in the student exhibition on Monday even though it is kind of embarassing. Oh well. Hakuna Matata.

Umbrella, -ella, -ella

The umbrella is underway...I'm about halfway done.


After looking at this, I realize that I'm pretty much using this to get comfortable with the material. The payoff of having a cool umbrella will be great because then I can enter it in the Student Exhibition (by this monday). I shouldn't have a problem finishing it by then.

I need to still work on how I frame my project in my presentation. That seemed to be the professor's biggest complaint. This weekend I will be sleuthing around grocery stores seeing what they do with the bags they are claiming to recycle. I've always wanted to be a detective!

Because I am obligated by my class...I must include that I worked an hour yesterday and two hours this morning on my project.

Inspiration Video, Perhaps?

Found some more inspiration about plastic bags

John sent me a link of this great music video.
Then Mia reminded me of this clip from American Beauty.
Now I might add to my project by editing images and video clips together all about plastic bags. Or maybe edit all my inspiration for the project together in a little movie.

Also here is a picture of the umbrella frame without fabric. Looks like a great weapon to me.

The Beginning of the Umbrella

I worked 3 hours today ironing out bags for my umbrella project.

The umbrella is made up of 8 panels. I decided to go with a yellow, black, and white color scheme with two panels of each solid color and then the 2 remaining panels will be a blend of all three colors. I am not sure how the blend will turn out, but i hope it works!

Just Working

Worked for 2 hours today before we met in the afternoon for the second part of IP Midterms.

This weekend I'm going to buy an umbrella to deconstruct and rebuild using ironed bags. Plus I'm going to start working on some light ideas because I would really like to have a light to put in the Student Exhibition.

Midterms...

Worked for 3 hours last night preparing for my midterm presentation.

Then I worked another 2 hours this morning to finish the presentation and write the midterm paper we have to turn in on Thursday. It's all done now, yay!

And We're Off

The documentation of my senior year integrated project and the millions of hours I will be spending on it.

Dictionary Definition of "Integrated Project":
Various parts or aspects linked and carefully planned out to achieve a particular aim.

My Integrated Project, as of today:
Iron plastic bags together and mold them to make functional things (and possibly even a sculpture of some sort)
I want to do in depth experimentation and research of plastic bags...

I'm still working on making my thesis a little more eloquent.