I began in my backyard. Rummaging through the mass of hoarded and found objects my mother collects. I wanted something with some sort of interest, even though I had no idea what our project would be I knew it had to be somewhat complex. After some deliberation, I decided on the tacky, unneeded, but still working lawn-light-snowman.
This snowman proved to be fun, but he was also difficult. His wire body didn’t allow for easy cutting and his Christmas light interior needed to be cut out and destroyed for the process of separation to occur. Though once separated our pieces were full of capabilities. We went through options as crazy as a highly mechanical fan, a refrigerator, a wagon, even a rocket. We eventually choose a more practical option to pursue with this project: a lamp.
Many designs went into the lamp, however, with the scrap materials of our classmates, we came to the minimalist modern design of the isosceles triangle. A simple design that would have the light hanging inside, while the body of the snowman and his skin became decorative elements. We went through many interruptions to get to the finished product. Initial scheduling was difficult due to both of our BAFA schedules, and the first connections we used in our lamp ended up falling apart. This meant we had to squeeze in time to essentially start over. Thankfully, with the help of some friends, we took on more sturdy approaches to the project. Instead of simply using elmer’s glue, we used nails with a mix of elmer’s glue and sawdust to make a paste like material. This allowed our connections to be tighter and to have a backup connection should one fail.
We are highly satisfied with the final product, but if we could change a few things, we would have put in a longer cord and made the base of the lamp able to firmly stand on its own without needing some wall assistance and being confined to a wall lamp. Maybe also neaten some of the smaller details, such as the skin connections, and the bare color of the base wood. But overall I am happy with this project.
