Expansion into Space:
For this project, we were tasked with moving from the world we had been building and learning about into space. I decided to approach this project by looking at the space race/cold war era of expanding and traveling toward the moon while also adding a more modern/futuristic spin to it. I first looked for articles, imagery, and stories to inspire my project. I found an article based on private companies sending self-automated rovers and robots to the moon. Through this I was able to decide on a modern and nostalgic twist on moving to the moon. I then drew out my designs and explored different concepts and ideas, and I finally decided on making plates and packaging for the plates. The way that these would connect to the idea of expanding to the moon is that they would be plates with moon designs and their purpose is to decorate homes on the moon and are promoted accordingly.
Process Step 1: Drawing out Ideas and Prototyping
The beginning of this project began with drawing out plans and ideas for the paper box packaging and testing out the best way to work with Sculpey clay. Imaged are photos of my sketched packaging plan, a prototype of a plate, and the original drawing of the moon design that I turned into a pattern on Illustrator and carved into the plates.
Process Step 2: Bringing Digital into the Project
For the second part of the project I made the packaging for the box where I collaged image, text, pattern, shapes, and color to create a box that had a nostalgic yet modern feel. I did this in Illustrator and printed it on 33×40 inch paper in the Design Lab. This part was fun because I got to incorporate things I learned from Drawing and Imaging earlier in the semester such as pattern generator!
Process Step 3: Baking Plates and Combining Packaging and Plates
The final step before the presentation was to bake my plates and figure out how to place them in the box I created. I baked two plates, one of 8 inches in diameter and one 5 inches in diameter. I kneaded four Sculpey colors together to get a marbled effect and placed a thin layer of a pale pink tone where I carved out the moon pattern I had drawn originally. I used tissue paper to keep the plates safe and used cardboard to solidify the box and frame the plates well.
Reflection:
Although I couldn’t learn how to throw plates on a wheel or make these plates out of real clay I really enjoyed exploring this project and combined both 3D and 2D mediums into a project that I’m proud of. At first, this project seemed daunting because I didn’t know what to do since the project was so open-ended, but once I found a direction to follow I really enjoyed exploring the facets of it. The thing I am most proud of is making the packaging, it was a really cool experience and it felt very satisfying to work on something digitally and see it come into creation. I think I would definitely want to explore this project more, and I’m thinking over the summer I’ll ask one of my colleagues who taught wheel and pottery and sold his own pottery to guide me and maybe I can make some real plates, which would be really cool for me and an extension on this project that I really enjoyed. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and this course, and it felt amazing to incorporate things I learned from day one and see how much I’ve grown since then.
