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.