Artist Statement is at the end
Mood Board: I really like the idea of working with wood and the clean cuts that are provided by the laser cutter. Hence I was considering focusing on an artist called Gabriel Schama who uses the laser cutter to cut up the wood wood and layers them on top of each other to create patterns and designs, which are very similar to the mandala.
Ideation:
Looking at the designs from my mood board, I thought it would interesting to create something that is related to the Indian culture, and going down the same path of my cultural background as my first project. In the first sketch, I have sketched out a pair of earrings and their designs that I could laser cut and create. However I wanted the earrings to have a deeper meaning and have more of a purpose, and really represent something. Hence I thought of moving onto the second sketch which is of a shoulder piece which is joined together with the pair of earrings. This is somethings that women wear in the olden days during the rule of many kings. Since the earrings and shoulder pads are joint, anyone wearing it is constraint within themselves and does not have the ability to move their neck. This is parallel to what women used to go through and still go through to this day in the Indian or perhaps the South Asian Culture. Women were told her keep quiet and only told to speak when spoken too, they were not allowed to voice their opinions, if they ever did they had to withstand the consequences. I wanted to highlight the struggles of not being able to voice ones opinion through this piece.
Cardboard Model:
I tried to create a cardboard model using recyclable cardboard. I cut up the cardboard into equilateral triangles and then stitch them up together. Here are a few images of the model that I made. I used the criss cross stitching technique to join the cardboard together. The circular object is supposed to represent the earrings. However I still need to figure out a way to make them stand on top of the piece, and figure out a proportion that would be ideal between the length between the shoulder and the ear, so that the earring would be exactly that length preventing the person wearing the earrings along with the shoulder cover up from moving their neck at all.
I created a laser cut design that using the adobe illustrator. I created the design being inspired by the patterns seen in Indian architecture. So many of these designs are also seen in clothing and traditional Indian jewelry.
Here is an image of the pattern that I created using illustrator. 
I bought wood to cut the design onto illustrator, however it did not seem to work as the laser did not fully cut through the wood. I then decided to keep the design engraved into the wood instead of letting it fully cut through. I wanted to see what the design would look like if I were to use the wood burning tool to engrave through the wood over the pattern that I already laser cut.
Here is an image of what the laser cut design looks like:
This is the what the laser cut engraving looks like on the wood. There are some dark engravings on the wood, but this is because, the wood was not completely straight therefore the laser lost its focus and increasing the thickness of the laser.
Artist Statement:
My work takes a critical view on the social and cultural issues that have been seen in the Indian Society for a long time now. My work explores the idea of gender inequality in the Indian society and culture. In some parts of India, being born as a girl is considered to be a burden on the family. A lot of the families in rural parts of India have been known for doing this. The girl is often killed for financial reasons, pensions and dowry. In many societies in India, parents are dependant on their kids in old age, however in the Indian culture, when the girl gets married she is known to leave her parental family as she joins her husbands family. However with the boys, the family is able to gain extra resources for their older age, when their son gets married. Another issue that is common in some parts of rural India is something called Dowry. A dowry is a sum of money that is provided by the bride’s family to the groom on their marriage. In the Indian culture, the dowry consists of valuable goods and a large sum of money. This considered as a tradition in Indian society. For some families who have several daughters, the payment of the dowry could be considered as a burden over the family.
Through my piece I wanted to highlight the state of women in India. Before India became a democracy, each state would be ruled over by a king. The women in the kingdom had many rules to follow, even if they were a queen. They were told not to speak up, they were not allowed to have a say in many things, however they were not allowed to show any signs of weakness. They were always told to dress in beautiful attire, however did not have the freedom to do many things.
My piece is able to portray the gracefulness of women but at the same time it is able to subtly show the constraints and lack of freedom that women had. My piece is a combination of earrings and a neck piece that covers the shoulders. The earrings are connected to the neck piece, when worn, it looks elegant but the person wearing it, is constraint and does not have the freedom to move their neck, because the earrings and the shoulder piece are connected to each other. This relates to my old piece as I am able to look back on my culture through difference lenses. My first piece related more to spirituality and this piece focuses on the importance of the women’s rights and freedom.
To make the shoulder piece, I used equilateral triangle so that it is able to move easily, which then I connected using wire. I also used wire to connect the earrings to the shoulder piece, by going around the circumference of the earrings.
Here are a few images:
