For the birds...

The semester is coming to a close. This is the final week of class so all elective classes have their final projects due. Both of my electives were on Monday so I had a quick week. In the morning I presented the final draft of my preliminary thesis research and in the afternoon I presented my final bird house/feeder. The projects were well-received. I can't really send along pictures of my paper and the content is really not all that generally interesting, so to sum it up in two words I will just say it is about physical interaction. As for the bird house/feeder, there was some doubt as to its functionality but either way they would look pretty hanging on the tree.

I had the pieces laser cut from thin cedar boards and then strung them back together with leather cord and silver jewelry crimps. The class was oriented toward wood production and I had originally planned to make eight or so.

But the cypress I was planning on using for some of the houses did not burn evenly and so the edges would require more clean-up work. And time equals money in the world of production so I just kept to the cedar. I have all the supplies though for the cypress version so I might finish them up this summer.


The final retail price for each little thing would be $70. We had a guest reviewer during the crit who was really insightful and articulate. He is a graduate from the industrial design department who worked for twelve years in manufacturing and production and now owns a cute gift store near the school. I am hoping he will be willing to help me develop business plans around some of the projects I have designed these past two semesters.