Object 1: Mirror
When I pictured my dorm room when I was in my 11th grade, the first thing that came to mind is the makeup box I had near my bed. I use the makeup box every day because that was where I kept all the facial cream that I use every day. When I think of the makeup box, I think of beauty, and after that, I came to the word, mirror. The mirror I thought of was also located in the bedroom, and I still use it till today. I think the mirror holds a lot of memory because it has been with me for almost four years now.
I created the object by tracing the actual mirror on cardboard. After that, I cut a small rectangle and score the top part to create a platform for the mirror to be able to stand. Moreover, I attached a metal sheet paper on top of the surface to form a mirror glass and painted the back part of the object to make the mirror more realistic.
Object 2: Coin
The second word that came up when I pictured my dorm room was my bunny doll. Then I thought about my birthday because I received the doll as a birthday present. Birthday made me think of cake and then candles. Finally, I came to the word, wish. Of course, people make wishes when they are about to blow their birthday cake. However, it meant something more than just a birthday wish for me. When I think of wish, I think of dreams and wonders, which was something I always thought about during high school. I have always wished to get into a good college, wish to get good grades, wish to meet good people at school, etc. As a result, I wanted to create an object that could represent wish in many ways. Therefore, I decided to create a coin. Since I was very young, I like to make a wish and toss a coin in a water fountain or a well. I decided to put number 1 as the number on the coin because it represents one wish per one person, just like how you would wish one thing at a time.
I used cardboard and cut it into circle shapes and stack them up to create a surface area, then wrapped it with metal sheet paper to look like a coin. I used a black sharpie marker to write the number and letters.
Object 3: Smores
Another object that I thought of was a carpet, which was located between our dorm beds. The carpet held so many memories because that is the place where we usually lie down after school and where we hung out. This made me thought of my friend’s sleeping bag because the carpet is where we usually have other people for sleepovers. The sleeping bag made me thought of a tent, then bonfire, and then smores. During winter in our dorm, we always make smores at the fireplace. It was always something I look forward to during winter time.
I cut out 4 pieces of cardboard to make the crackers and painted with acrylic. After that, I punched some holes to make the crackers look more realistic. I used playdough to make the marshmallow and chocolate.
Object 4: Ring
Another object I thought of was the tradition bottles. These bottles were given to me during junior year and it meant so much because I received it during a tradition week at my school. My school is very traditional and these bottles were passed down bottles from previous seniors and have written messages on the bottles. The bottles made me think of my school, and moon and stars because they are the symbols of the tradition. Next, I thought of sisterhood because it is an all girls school and we have a strong sister bond with the seniors. Then, I came to the word ring because my senior gave me the class ring.
The ring was made with 3 gauges of wire and 3 different colors: silver, green, black. I twist the green and silver wires together. I used the black wire to create the top part of the ring. The reason I chose green and silver as the core is that those 2 colors are our class’s colors.
Object 5: Fish
The last object I thought of was the Poland Spring bottles I had at the corner of the bedroom. My roommate and I had so many plastic bottles and we never really do anything about it. Therefore, that made me thought of recycling, then the environment, the ecosystem, and I came to the word fish because of the fish that are suffering from the plastics in the ocean. I felt really bad about the plastic bottles that I could have recycled.
The fish are made of plastics. I cut the plastic bottle into half and add plastic bags to make the fish a little puffy. Next, I cut the top part of the plastic bottle to make a face and cut plastics to make fins and the tail. After that, I attached everything with glue gun and painted the fish grey.
All of the objects are made of used or recycled materials.
