IDS 2: Systems Thinking

For our project, we want to focus on alternative mental healing: astrology, for wellness purposes. We plan on making a calendar with information on all star signs. For each specific sign, we will have a ‘gift’ box each, containing a necklace, scented soap (as different signs have their own scents) and a handbook containing research and advices.

We plan on making our calendar in a shape of an astrology chart that will be rotatable.

Target Community:

Our community is the alchemists kitchen in the lower east side which specializes in botanical medicines, herbal remedies and whole plant products for connecting artisanship, sustainability, and conscious living. we aim to create products that continue with their vision but include the element of astrology with healing and natural elements.

Rough calendar prototype:

For our project, we decided to only focus on leo, instead of all 12 astrology signs. This way, we can research more into details and make sure the execution of our work is neatly finalised. Another reason, is that all zodiac signs have separate calendars, which would have been a conflict because we were just planning on doing on and having the information align, with separate gift boxes.

Research

For our research process, we look up objects and items designed specifically connected to astrology. The website I found most inspirational, is Etsy.

The first place we visited to get our ideas flowing was in China town. The jelwery store recorded our aura by having our hands placed on the detector. Once it is printed, they explained our past, future, and personality from the photo.

Next we visited the enchantment store located on A Avenue. They specialise in alternative mental healing and astrology. We were able to gather very useful information at this place – asking them the important qualities, and products made for leo: smell, color, personality traits, etc. We also bought a scent (that was made for leos) for our soap. In the store, I also found a couple of useful books, indicating stones and gems for leos. These gems serve different purposes, depending on your physical and mental well-being, and emotions. I was able to wrote down the useful stones for leos while at this place.

Notes:

The third place we visited was Alchemist Kitchen. This place specialised in natural herbs. We wanted to get inspiration for packaging. Their bracelets’ packaging were made out of cardboard with a little print on top – easy, but very innovative, and the bracelets were packaged in a small, clear test tube.

Madeline’s and My Aura:

Inspiration for necklace design:

Leo Constellation:

Product Ideas

Locket Ring:

3D print a leo constellation design as a locket for the stones. The stones provided with this gift set have direct connection to the star sign leo. Depending on our emotions and needs, each stone can essentially be used for an alternative mental and physical healing, and support (to our lives).

The band of the ring will be constructed in the metal shop out of copper. We will find a way to attach the 3D printed product to the band.

Handbook:

The handbook is made directly for additional information provided the meaning of each stones for the locket ring.

Leo Choker:

The choker will be designed with a bendable trait to put around the wearer’s neck. It will be in the shape of the star sign leo.

Moon cycle with tourmaline necklace:

This necklace will represent leo’s moon cycle with an extension of the tourmaline stone hanging down. This specific stone helps leos stay grounded, because of our extrovert personality. It will help us stay humble and remind us of our purpose and where we came from.

Soap:

We will make our own soap with the qualities representing leo and their needs. There will be one design on each of the soap — the leo constellation and the leo symbol.

Sketch Designs:

Instead of 3D printing the lockets for the rings, we decided to instead 3D print the pattern of our handmade soap. This will be an indented design on the soap. To achieve this, we will place it in the mould.

3D Print Designs on Rhino

Leo Constellation:

Leo Symbol:

Makerbot File:

3D Print Product:

The white base at the bottom is the support for the products for the two pieces to stay standing during the printing process. After it was done, we detached the base.

Unfortunately, I accidentally moved the bar from the leo constellation too low, beneath the rest of the piece. This caused the product to break in half. In addition, now that I see the physical products, I now know the exact size of the piece. I made some adjustments, making both of the two pieces thicker and rounder.

New File on Rhino:

Here you can see I experimented with a couple of shapes. Instead of a rectangular shape, I designed it like a pipe because I think it would look better as a mould for the soap. The constellation also has a thicker base from the prior design.

Makerbot File:

Final 3D Print Product 2: (with support)

Shopping for Materials:

We got most of our metal supplies from Metalliferous in Midtown. We had to make several trips there to know exactly what we wanted.

Jelwery Making

We visited the metal shop in midtown to gather our materials. We bought 3 chain necklaces: one copper and two gold, stars, and metal discs in various sizes, a tourmaline gem, and hoops. When we got to the metal shop, I first started experimenting with the etching, while Madeline adjusted the length of the necklace. We measured from our necks and marked how close to the neck we want it to be. She also transferred the hooks from one of the gold necklaces, to the copper, since that one was cut by indicated length from bulk at the store.

The photo on the left is the original length, and the photo on the right is after the adjustment.

Below shows the process of me etching. The discs shown below are the ones I messed up on. While I was etching, I kept etched the wrong day on the disc of the moon because I got confused a couple of times. The photo on the right is the etching tool.

I then etched on the gold plates after I was done with the copper.

We measured the length of the necklace and divided it by 11, which is the number of the discs. To evenly space it out, I counted the chain hoops between each disc.

While attaching the discs on the necklace, we realised that the gold chain was too small to attach the discs, or any other elements on the necklace. While I was working on the copper necklace, Madeline went to buy a new gold necklace.

Finished Copper Necklace:

Gold Necklace:

The gold necklace is much more dense than the copper. It has 3 elements on it, but there are only 4 moon phases from the leo cycle represented on the necklace, instead of a portrayal of the whole cycle. However, we also attached stars and a tourmaline stone, which is a grounding stone for leos.

Measurement Experimentation:

Finished Gold Necklace:

We made several adjustments of the length of each elements on how low we want it to hang.

Soap Making

Ingredients

soap base glycerine
activated charcoal
sun oil (leo’s scent)
bath bomb (for glitter effect)

We ordered 2lb of glycerine soap base. The first step is to melt the glycerine in a pot that is placed on a pan of hot water. But in order to fit everything in the pot, we cut the block into smaller pieces.

Melting Glycerine:

After the glycerine was all melted, we placed the pot on a piece of cloth. Simultaneously as it is cooling down, we add the necessary ingredients: activated charcoal, sun oil scent, and bath bomb.

Mixing Ingredients:

Soap Hardening:

After all the ingredients are mixed in the pot, we poured it in our mould – which is a shoe box. The shoe box was a perfect size for the amount of ‘soap’ we had. The ingredients hardened very fast, in a jelly-like texture. When the soap was fully hardened, we cut the piece into blocks of bar soap. We intentionally cut the bars unevenly to make it seem more authentic. After it was cut, we wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.

Soap Packaging

We decided to risograph our soap packaging to stick with the theme of gold and black (like our design brief shown below). We are printing the packaging small enough to reveal the soap for a handmade quality, yet all our useful information, such as ingredients, are included.

Digital File:

Because we were printing on black paper, we had to change the originally black soap packing to write. The program also only recognizes black and white, and so, we changed the ‘gold’ to black.

Process and Experiments:

Design Brief

Template for Design Brief (rough):

We decided to handwrite our design brief because we felt it makes the brief feel more authentic and personal to the reader.

Complete rough design brief:

Risograph Design Brief:

It took us several times for each layer to align perfectly. After we were satisfied with the printing, we got some feedback from Yana. We made further adjustments on the file on illustrator and then reprinted the second time.

Final Design Brief: