Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Conversation Pieces Project Reflection

The original idea of this project was to "recreate" a household object using wire. The first part of the project was to create simply the object. The second part would be to create an abstraction piece, which would be the companion to the first piece. This project dealt with the context of shape, construction, and lines in space. 

         The wire as a material was difficult to work with, especially when constructing a basket, which involved weaving, twisting and securing the ends of wires in tight spaces, and straightening the pieces as I went along (which I would say after completing the piece, is a very obvious struggle still displayed). I started the first piece by constructing 3 rectangles, and creating the corners by vertically placing and twisting the pieces into place. This was the basic shape of the piece. I then attached the handle- made by two longer pieces of wire curved over the two longer sides of the baskets. Then came the most difficult part: weaving. I counted out 7 pieces along the length of the basket, with one which split into two smaller pieces on one side. I then counted 5 pieces along the width of the piece, and started weaving. I would say the most difficult part I found when starting the weaving process was making sure to alternate which pieces went under the frame and which pieces went above the frame at the ends, constantly reassuring that two pieces next to each other weren't both above or below, messing up the rest of the weaving process. I made this mistake later along the way when weaving the sides. Making this mistake seized me of much needed, very precious time, that was maybe used chatting with my friend in the studio and disproving the theory of multi-tasking. But of the first piece, the most difficult part would be the side weaving, due to the waste of material and loss of time.

         Onto the abstraction. This piece was a bit more fun, as it was easier. Once I'd learned and had come up with some ideas and techniques for weaving. Using prompts to fabricate ideas and sketches to become 3D companions. Multiple sketches were done, and some groups were even compiled into the final sketch design. Charcoal and Mylar paper were the key components for these sketches. Using prompts such as "to undo", "to reduce/ to dislocate", and "to allude/ to imply" for my brainstorm sketches in particular. My first design highlighted the prompt, "to undo", and would simply lay flat pieces of the basket, and weaving in a more 2D space. This would be done by simply creating 11 rectangles, which would dilate in size, framing each other, the weaving the width and length pieces into the rectangles. The handle would be the only part that was 3D.
However the design I ended up going through with, completed scratched out the idea of dilating the rectangles. The design involved creating 12 same-size rectangles, as well as a base, which would run along the bottom of the escalating rectangles. The base would be a balance and attachment piece for all the weaving pieces to attach to, which I found could be an easier and much quicker approach. Because the length pieces would be woven in a slanted direction, due to the stair-like appearance of the squares, I found it be much easier to place the pieces onto the top, pull the weaving pieces inside or outside the frame of the rectangle and push and secure each rectangle into place. This cut time and looked much better in the final design- from what I think, of course.


         The idea for this project is much like the idea of the masking tape shoe project. It would help the artist to understand what components make the piece. Unlike, trying to make the second piece look like the first, it was completely warped, but techniques to apply to it improved for the second pieces in both designs. The piece appeared as a 3D line drawing in the end. 











No comments:

Post a Comment