Thanks All Around

I woke up 6am yesterday morning anticipating a difficult day but by lunch time I had everything under control! I owe a big "thank you" to Mike at Replicast and Bill at WT Wilson for their help with the plastic and metal processes respectively.

Mike handled (no pun intended...) the making of the silicone mold and the new plastic pattern to replace the original fragile plaster. Most of his business is in the making of prototypes for companies like Hasbo (kids toys) and his shop is just full of molds.

Bill took the mold that Mike made and poured 500 degree molten tin into it...and out came the metal hand. Bill makes little trinkets of the type sold in gift stores. He had little tin army men laying around in droves.

He made three sets of hands from the mold but the first set happened to be the best. He can melt the other two down and reuse the material. I would have liked to have some extra copies but the things came out weighing ten pounds each so I think aluminum might be a better choice of material. I owe another thanks to Phil (a classmate) who helped me figure out an amazingly simple solution for attaching the hands to the wall. He literally shaved hours of work time off of my day.

Supersize Me

So my full-on bookshelf has transformed into something more focused and more do-able. Instead of trying to solve every problem - storage, adaptability, display - I am looking specifically at bookshelves as elements of display and self-portrait. I will be mounting a pair of cast, metal hands directly to the wall. These hands will hold a stack of ten or fifteen books. At the top of the display will be two frames for displaying books with cover art facing forward. One frame is meant to represent the mind and the other the heart, alluding to the idea that some books appeal to our intellect and some to our sentiments.


*********************imagine hands mounted here*******************

So now for the fun part. In order to cast a metal hand I have to first provide the company with a "plaster pattern" of the final product. They will then take this pattern and make a new mold that can survive for reuse through molten hot metal. Once this mold is created it is quite easy to make multiple finished castings. To create this plaster pattern I used a product called alginate which is used in dentist offices to make make molds of teeth. The hand is inserted into this mixture and once it has set the hand is removed to create a perfect hand-shaped hole. It is into this hole the plaster is poured. When the plaster has finished setting the alginate is ripped away and the perfect plaster hand remains.

My first attempt was a bit of a failure as the alginate mixture was full of lumps. Graham was my hand model and his pretty hands ended up looking like they were covered in disease.

I decided I needed some big hands so that the "shelf" could hold some big books. I found them in Peter Dean, one of the instructors in the furniture department who teaches woodworking to the sophomores. He has to be around 6'8" and his hands fit the bill. He was nice enough to give me an hour of his time and luckily we came away with a nice alginate mold. I had planned on doing two sets of hands in case something went wrong along the way, but his hands were so big we used the mixture I had planned on using for two sets on one. Luckily it all worked out.

That is until all the fingers fell off! The alginate mixture is flexible and the slight movement of the loose hand caused it to become detached from the still surrounded fingers. In the end all I got was one thumb to remain attached. Luckily, the breaks were clean and I was able to glue them back on with minimal effect. A little plaster patching and they will be fine.



For scale...

Material Exploration

So you know what I am doing in studio, and you know a bit about my slide puzzle table...but I haven't written much yet on the material exploration I have been doing as a part of my research elective. As promised, I have been working with rawhide which is a lot cooler than those dog bones would make it seem. I had some initial troubles with the online company from whom I ordered some remnants so I started working with paper to get some form and texture ideas.


I know some of you might be thinking "that just looks like wadded-up paper" but there was a method to the madness and as a starting point I thought it had potential. A few days later though the rawhide arrived and it didn't behave at all like the paper. Ranging in thickness from 1/32" to 1/8" the hides (these particular remnants are from a cow but hides are available from all sorts of animals - goats, pigs, deer, horses, buffalo, etc.) don't crinkle and bend like a piece of paper does. So I ditched the paper and just started working directly with the rawhide.

When the rawhide arrives it is hard and stiff so it has to be soaked in water for a few hours before it can be molded into shapes. Then once it dries again it holds the shape in which it dried. My goal with this project has always been to only use rawhide so I was looking for ways to put a little more strength into the material. I thought folding it like origami would layer up the material and the bends would provide a little extra strength. The remnants I had were really too small though in relation to their thickness and the material didn't really want to fold along crisp lines.

While the material was still wet I put a small drop of dye in one corner and watched the color spread along the veins and grooves of the hide. I don't quite know how I will incorporate this into a final piece but the effect is really beautiful and would be unique on each piece. My professor encouraged me to work with somehow attaching small components together to increase strength without adding an unnecessary amount of material. So below are my latest efforts...


One of the hardest things about the material is overcoming all of its visual and cultural history to create something new that transcends the material itself. I would like to make a small, sculptural ottoman/table but am trying to remain open to any good ideas the material presents.

Slide Puzzle Table

I met today with my Yuri, my "tutor" for the independent study. The purpose of the study is to spend the semester researching and then building a large dining table with a top surface that works like a slide puzzle. The grain of the wood will provide the "image" of the puzzle. Fifty or sixty years ago a local craftsman donated a large collection of wood to RISD. It is called the Rare Woods Collection and every student, alumni, and faculty get one chance to propose a project and use some of the wood from the collection. I thought this project would be a good opportunity to access the collection since the idea behind the table is closely linked to the wooden top. Yuri and I spent about an hour rummaging through the wood. However, we didn't come away with any clear winners. I have so many dimensional and functional requirements that my choices are pretty slim. That part of the story is to be continued. Here is a quick little video I took of a cardboard mock-up that illustrates how the top pieces would slide along. The cardboard is cut at half-scale.

Cultural Mirror

So when I said we were only doing thesis work this year in studio is was a little bit of a fib. We have a short assignment that we are doing together with the new first-year grads. The project is entitled "Cultural Mirror" and we are supposed to look at our daily rituals (brushing your teeth, getting dressed, eating breakfast, etc.) and design a new object that "addresses how we truly live." I chose the ritual of organizing and displaying books. As my uncle once said, "You may not be able to read every book you would like, but you can certainly buy them all!" Many of us take that to heart, but I am focusing less on efficient storage and more on the idea that displaying books is a form of communicating with others. It is about the content of the books, how they are organized, and about the status of education and knowledge.




I made a working model of my original idea. The initial feedback I received was that it looked and functioned too much like a traditional bookcase and initially, I think that was actually one of my goals. I am coming around to the other side though. I think I can be more specific to the concept. Two of my favorite pieces from my original concept might be sticking around though - the frame and the hands supporting the stack of books. I have to look into my ability to get them cast before I can make any commitments...

Photo Series

Before I get started posting all of the various projects I have going on here at RISD I thought I would share a quick bit about another project I started last week. I have always enjoyed taking pictures of the things and people around me. However, and I am sure many of you out there can testify to this, it takes a lot of energy to constantly be "on" and waiting for the next photo opportunity. The family pro, Ashley Davis, suggested doing small, focused projects so I took her advice and started clicking.

All of the exterior surfaces at Haystack are unfinished pine. As these surfaces are exposed to the elements they turn from a pale tan into a dark gray. Eventually, the extreme northeastern weather has its way and the wood has to be replaced altogether. The local maintenance man only replaces the necessary pieces leaving a unique fingerprint of each year on the surfaces. Here is a sample of some of the shots:






Early last week we had a rare gray day and I happened to look out my bedroom window at the roof of the building to our north. The cheap gray shingles looked like they were painted in watercolors as they blended into the sky. I didn't have my camera with me so I couldn't record it, but it gave me the idea to do a series of the roof at different times of day and in different weather conditions. So far, there hasn't been another gray day (not that I'm complaining!) but I have enjoyed watching the shadows across the roof as the sun moves overhead.





Worrying about the shot can definitely take me out of the moment but I have also seen how it can give me so much more appreciation for the events and objects that surround me. Give it a try!

Back in the Groove

Well, school has started back up and everyone is off and running. I am taking three classes this semester for the usual total of fifteen credits. A whopping nine of those credits come from my grad studio class. This entire year in the studio is devoted to thesis work so I won't be responding to specific assignments as I have done in the past. Instead, we are encouraged to explore our own area of interest. Along with the pieces we produce we are required to write a paper that serves as a written documentation of the idea we choose to explore. I expect my thoughts will grow and change over the course of the year but I am beginning my work looking at biological systems and the current interest and issues that surround them as a jumping off point. My work in general already has a strong basis in systems and interactivity so I think the idea will serve to make my work relevant and more focused.

In addition to my studio class which meets twice a week, I am taking two electives. The first being a class that will be researching materials not typically used in the design of furniture. We are encouraged to choose a material and explore its potential through experimentation. The class is not all play and no work though. We are required to produce a flawless finished product by the end of the semester. The work of the entire class will be evaluated and selected pieces will be chosen to be a part of an exhibition at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York in the spring. I have chosen initially to work with rawhide, which is the skin of an animal that has not been exposed to tanning. We are free to change our material at any time...as long as we finish by the due date.

For my second elective I will be doing an independent study with Yuri, the instructor of the Design for Production class I took last spring. She knows a lot about woodworking and is going to help me make a dining room table with a slide puzzle top and maybe one chair to go along with it.

The table has the potential to be pretty complicated, especially with wood expanding and contracting the way it does. I want all the pieces to work perfectly so I will need lots of help to pull it off.

So, those are my classes. In other related news, I have a new roommate. She is a first-year grad in the jewelry department and things are working out perfectly. I miss Mallory and Quigley the Cat, but Yoshie is as good of a replacement as I could hope for. To avoid eating from the expensive, limited, and unhealthy food choices around campus I have a new resolve to go to the grocery store every Monday. So far, so good; but I know it is just going to get harder and harder to make the time for that. My classmates make fun of me for drinking my meals in the form of protein shakes but they are just so convenient!