In the News...

I was surfing around the internet, which I do every Monday morning before Jewelry 2, and it was really a slow news week. Most of the coverage is the same old stuff from before, there is a war in Iran, the chaos in Haiti, a flood somewhere else, some peace talks and the Olympics. All of them seem to be just the regular speculation from before about what will happen and when an end to violence, destruction, and pain will come. So, I tend to avoid the typical "war coverage" news that seems to be so readily available.

Anyway, what actually caught my eye was an article about Coca-cola presenting at a food show in Florida (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/6874961.html). Seems pretty mundane right? Well, yeah it was, but the interesting part for me was the information behind the story. Coca-cola was represented by their Latin spokesperson and talking about international sales. The article went on to state Coca-cola was ahead in profits last year because of international sales. Coca-cola has been an U.S. company for years, its very telling when they are finding more of a market outside of the U.S. then in it. Makes you wonder what is going on. Can the sakes of Coca-cola really be the true indicator of our economy? It is an interesting proposal in my mind.

Looking abroad, there news always seems more happy. In Mexico from El Pais, there was a wonderful article about music. The part that actually interested me was, the entire article was about American Actors and singers. (http://www.elpais.com.uy/100214/pespec-471195/novedades/-la-musica-me-hace-feliz-) This was not the first of the articles I found (in spanish) from Latin American countries about American artists and actors. This made me wonder why is there not more articles about Latin artists in the United States. It is so rare to hear of an international band in the United States (unless you are a music buff) it makes me think America really is that self-centered. I love reggaeton which is a type "urban" hip-hop in Spanish. It is hard to find new reggaeton artists in the United States (some notable ones for you all to check out that are pretty easy to find are Don Omar and Wisin y Yandel) because they get little to no air time unless they are on "spanish radio stations". I wish there were a radio station out there that would play what is popular around the world instead of the same 20 songs that are popular in the U.S. right now. The United States needs to become more international on all fronts and that is such an easy think to do.

'10 Problems' Photos

I realized I never made it to posting this on my blog! These were the photos I took of the "problems" I have everyday.

Making Potato Starch

Basically, if you take potatoes and put them with water in a blender it will become a pulp. Next, just boil it for a while and it will begin to separate into a paste (video above). That paste hardens in about 48 hours. It dries clear with the thickness of fabric starch or Elmer's glue.

So, I did my materials samples (finally) and they took longer to dry then I expected but here is a shot of them all together.

The balls on the far right are the button hardening samples. The rounded forms are the different materials cast into tea light trays (some worked some didn't). The center is just the raw dog felt and human hair thread.

J2.Project 1. Inspiration

"Nightmares" by Eterna2 from Deviant Art

"Painted Roses" by Autonoe from Deviant Art

"Peril of the Guardian" by Alector Fencer

"Take me the Ship of my Dreams" by Osokin on Deviant Art

image search from google

"In This Land of Dreams" from Deviant Art (artist unknown)

google search image for nightmares

"Alternate Nightmares" by Gaarathehated; Deviant Art

google search of dream catchers

google search for dreams

I realized I never really posted the images I am working with for my project. So here are some of the ideas I am thinking about for Dreams. So above is the images I want to draw from.

A Little Creative Caffeine on Natural Hardening

I was trying to figure out how to make buttons for my current little pet project in materials (pun intended sorry folks!) and I wanted to keep the buttons made out of fur. It would be easy enough to model some out of bamboo or rock but what is the fun in that? So, I google'd how to make natural "plastics" and tried some at home. I am not really finished this little experiment but it was getting late last night so this is the progress thus far.

I guess you can call this the "making of" picture of the milk-based plastic. It smelled HORRIBLE (probably because I hate the smell of vinegar). Anyway, it was very think and crumble-y and not suited for this at all. I don't even think I could mold it into shapes. I have a few possible reasons in my head it didn't work; mostly I think there was not enough milk fat in the milk I used to produce curds. I am not sure exactly how it works but, let's just say this didn't. Also, it shrunk the wool ball by half it's size! That to me is a huge waste of fur.

This was fun. I took a homemade candle that I made a few days ago and impregnated the wool ball with it. It made the ball a little larger and it was pretty hard instantly. Foreseeable problem is cracking. I was hoping that my throughly coating the entire ball with wax it would fix this problem. I have to test that later tonight.

This one was pretty successful. It is just needle felted into a ball shape. I think its pretty nice and one of my favorites of the tests. It remains soft and easy to handle and retains roughly the same size and shape as the basic "felted ball". I am concerned about it breaking down with use though.

This is my favorite of all of them. It is creamer and lemon-juice "homemade plastic" (There is a video below of the making of). The plastic started out as a nice "paste" and you could just roll and squish the wool ball into it. It was nice and squishy until it started to harden. It kinda looked like a white milkdud when I was done (weird comparison I know) but, it seems the easiest to do and has the possibility for the most success I think.

***Update*** As of 8pm the cream-based plastic is still a bit squishy.

I tried to potato-based one. Basically it creates starch. I do not have an oven or the glycerin so I got a little creative and we will see how it goes.

Here is a little video of making cream-based plastic. Its just creamer (half and half) and lemon juice.

Home-made Plastics

I am trying to find a way to "harden" my felted buttons. I found a pretty neat site on how to make some homemade plastics with stuff found around the house.

http://howtomakestuff.com/2008/09/11/how-to-make-plastic/

I want to try the milk and the lemon ones. I don't think I will have access to the glycerin to try to potato one but that looks really fun and with my knowledge of biochemistry, I think it would be pretty strong.

Also, there is an artist making bowls out of vegetables. He uses some sort of "proprietary drying and forming technique" to actually make bowls out of carrots and some other vegetables. http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/07/30/edible-art-biodegradable-bowls-made-from-vegetables/

Even cooler then those, there is a race car made of vegetables that runs on chocolate byproducts! It can go up to 135 miles per hour (whoa!). http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/race-car-made-vegetables-runs-chocolate

How to Needle Felt

Just a video tutorial I found for myself on how to needle felt. I am trying to needle felt some buttons for my project and then I am doing a little creative caffeine on how to harden them and make them work as a button as well as what I can do with fur in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcfbgtyrz2U

I want to try using milk-based polymers to see if that is a natural hardener for the wool. I am thinking I can use it as a bonding agent and hardener for the fur and then mold it into a button shape. (http://www.hometrainingtools.com/article.asp?ai=1229&bhcd2=1266292360 how to link)

Catch-Up

After about a week of snow and barely any internet (to the point I am unable to open most webpages and actually see anything) everything seems to be back up! It has been an interesting news week.

The Olympics have started and before the opening ceremony an Olympic luger died (http://english.aljazeera.net/sport/2010/02/201021319333362528.html). They seem to have been able to go on afterwards but, this is something that bothers me. A lot of people have said that sports are getting to be unsafe. I am a Cheerleading coach for younger girls (7-9 year olds) and I see that in my own sport. They installed "safety padding" to make it safer but, I think its still dangerous. Sports in general are being pushed too far and athletes are becoming younger and younger. It leads be to question what is going to happen in the future. There needs to be a point where it stops or more and more people will be killed.

Next, the incident with film director Kevin Smith. I honestly agree with Southwest's policy of charging someone two seats if they do not fit into one seat (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb/15/overweight-filmmaker-banned-southwest-airlines). I mean I think it was handled badly, but if you cannot fit into one seat then you have to pay for two. It is no fair for the other person who is assigned the seat next to you if you are taking up a seat and a half. I just think that they did not handle it well when they informed him. It is not necessarily a 'flight risk' as they said to him. I just think he was wrong to take it the way he did. If he flies a lot he should know the policy. The airline should have informed him of the policy before he boarded though.

Materials- What is Material?

I figured it would be helpful to brainstorm about some materials and what materials means to me and what it means to our culture as well as types of Materials.

Wikipedia states that Material is:

"Material is synonymous with substance, and is anything made of matter – hydrogen, air and water are all examples of materials. Sometimes the term "material" is used more narrowly to refer to substances or components with certain physical properties that are used as inputs to production or manufacturing. In this sense, materials are the parts required to make something else, from

buildings and art to stars and computers.
A material can be anything: a finished product in its own right or an unprocessed raw material. Raw materials are first extracted or harvested from the earth and divided into a form that can be easily transported and stored, then processed to produce semi

-finished materials. These can be input into a new cycle of production and finishing processes to create finished materials, ready for distribution, construction, and consumption.An example of a raw material is cotton, which is harvested from plants. Cotton can be processed into thread (also considered a raw material), which can then be woven into cloth, a semi-finished material. Cutting and sewing the fabric turns it into a garment, which is a finished product. Steelmaking is another example – raw materials in the form of ore are mined, refined and processed into steel, a semi-finished material. Steel is then used as an input in many other industries to make finished products. In chemistry materials can be divided into metals and non-metals."

I think for the Materials course I am taking they are focusing more on raw materials. For example, the first project focuses on the use of raw materials from animals, plants and miner

als. I want to focus on the types of these raw materials that I could make myself, so there is a consideration of my technical ability, and also cost. From the little research I have done, they do not cost very much, however; I would love if most of my materials could be found around the home. It sounds weird I guess, but, I have been brainstorming a list of possible in house natural materials (dog fur, human hair, spider webs). I like art to fit within my budget and I usually assign a project a certain budget to follow (with my finances and also to make it more realistic in the terms of being able to be remade and possibly sold). Profit margins have always interested me, I work in retail so I hear about them a lot, so I like to keep in mind how much stuff costs vs. how much it could be sold for.

I was shopping around for materials I could use last night like roving made from silk worms, bamboo, sheep, alpaca, camel (to

the left, look at those pretty natural colors!) and the word "fiber" arts kept coming up. I have heard this word sooooo much, but honestly, I never looked into its meaning. So, again using wikipedia (I know they are not an authority, but I find their definitions to be less wordy and more understandable then other places) Fibers are:

"Fiber, also spelled fibre, is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread. They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissues together. Human uses for fibers are diverse. They can be spun into filaments, string or rope, used as a component of composite materials, or matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. Synthetic fibers can be produced very cheaply and in large amounts compared to

natural fibers, but natural fibers enjoy some benefits, such as comfort, over their man-made counterparts."

As for minerals, I looked up a definition in class the other day. For those that missed it minerals are classified as:

"A mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. A rock, by comparison, is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids, and need not have a specific chemical composition. Minerals range in composition from pure elements and simple salts to very complex silicates with thousands of known forms.^[1] The study of minerals is called mineralogy."

I think I will list these as my "carve-ables" in my project. They are hard, geological forms that I think would be good to investigate.

J2- Brainstorming Project 1

Project 1: Series of Treated Metal Surfaces in a Theme, Concept Brainstorm

I was given a project in class yesterday to make a series of treated metal surfaces that portray a theme. I jotted down a quick list of about 20 different themes. I think three of them are pretty viable: Space, Childhood and Dreams. I am thinking about imagery but, I am also very concerned about presentation. I think that way you present something really makes a difference on how it is viewed.

Dreams-

I was thinking of the dichotomy between dreams and nightmares. The word nightmares got me thinking of dream catchers. They would make wonderful surface textures for some of my pieces, but, beyond that I was thinking it could also provide a mounting surface. If I made a large enough dream catcher it may be possible

to mount the pieces to it like the beads are placed on it. I don't think this is really a final solution but, I will keep looking into it.

The imagery of dreams would be quite interesting. I was thinking of mixing images of monste

rs with butterflies. The landscapes of dreams are usually very bright and co

lorful mixed with swirling patterns and shapes from all the pieces about dreams I could find. That makes me think of images of swirls and possible patinas that could be placed on the metal.

Space-

This one is more of a challenge for me to conceptualize. I seem to mix space and night together in my head. Images of galaxies

mixed with icons of stars and planets. I was also

thinking of the texture of the moon and the texture of a night sky. This leaves possibilities for soldier inlays and patinas (especially oxidation of the metal). I don't really know how I would present this type of imagery to be honest. It seems to present a challenge because of the vastness of space. It would be like containing all of space in a single form.

I was also thinking about the meaning of night. I could take this into a different direction and do the beasts of night. That could be an interesting mix of textures and forms as well as incorporating some of the iconography of stars and moons that I was thinking of before.

Childhood-

This was inspired by two images of butterflies that I saw while looking into the subject of dreams. Childhood presents a lot of different images depending on what gender the imagery is targeted for and what aspect of childhood you represent. I like the idea of mixing images of dolls with footballs. There are a lot of textures and things that could go into this as well. I was leaning with all my imagery more towards the side of whimsy and fantasy of childhood. The texture of a teddy bear or the wing of a bug would make very interesting textural pieces. There are a lot of bright colors and contrasting colors that could really lead to a lot of experimenting as well.

I was really inspired by the image above. It made be think of ways to represent forms without all the details. I think a soldier inlay of something like this would be very effective. As for presentation I was thinking it could be done in an introspective fashion. My initial thoughts are to mount them around a mirror of some sort, like onto a wooden frame around a mirror, so that when you look at the images you also have to look at yourself. I would hope it would provoke a retrospective of your childhood.

Just something to brighten your day <3

Ya know...MAYBE ITS A SIGN MS. DIXON!

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-survey-results1206,0,4276214.htmlpage I think to myself today, Why is Sheila Dixon still in office. She was caught redhanded using giftcards to Best Buy and Target buying PERSONAL items that were seized in her home...yet she is still in office because she won't step down. The news above shows a slim majority that want her out and I agree with this article http://www.examiner.com/x-3108-Baltimore-Republican-Examiner~y2009m12d7-How-dumb-are-the-citizens-of-Baltimore ...HOW DUMB ARE THE PEOPLE OF BALTIMORE?

This weekend the Major's Parade through Hampden was greeted with the shouts of "Theif" and "Where are MY giftcards?" yet, Major Dixon sat pretty and waved to the crowd.
The statement that I most agree with "Sheila Dixon stole gift cards intended for poor children and she also had an affair with a married man. Yet many people claimed Dixon was a good, church-going woman. What church taught those ethics and morals? Was Dixon’s church located on The Block?" Now, I will be the first to admit, I don't like Major Dixon, never really have. And, this isnt the first time she has been suspected of doing something wrong.

When will she get that she was caught in the act and step down before it ruins her forever? Right now parading around like nothing happened is just angering people more. She needs to end this all now before it gets worse.

Homeless Veterans

Somethings make you wonder what is going on in the world. Recently in Chicago a homeless shelter was opened for veterans. It was not really even an article, more of like a blurb about it opening in the worldpress. http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1925052,homeless-shelter-veterans-120709.article The fact that we are allowing returning war veterans to go homeless is a crime. They fought for this country and they deserve more respect. Even if you oppose the war something should be done for them.

I also wonder about the training they are recieving in the military if they are unable to transition out of it into a stable job. My godbrother was trained as a plane and h-vac mechanic to which he still works in that field today. He left the marines as an MP only a few years ago. I wonder what changed to make it so that these men can't leave with a useable skill.

My other problem with this is, it is only a men's shelter. Now, I realize the military is predominantly male;however, there ARE women in the military. I am sure they are affected the same way these men are. How are they being helped?

Big Green Purse Project

I was reading the Baltimore Examiner online today and I came across an article about the women who won the trip to Copenhagen to talk at the climate meeting. She is a local mom, and founder of the Big Green Purse campaign. (http://www.examiner.com/x-17020-DC-Green-Living-Examiner~y2009m12d2-Send-a-local-green-mom-and-climate-activist-to-talks-in-Copenhagan article)

I did some research into this campaign and its pretty awesome. It's basically a grassroots idea to take $1000 of your household budget and devote it to green projects. If everyone did this it would compound into an astronomical effect. (http://blog.biggreenpurse.com/biggreenpurse/2009/12/vote-for-me-as-your-hopenhagen-ambassador-.html) Basically, this style is super effective. The way to change something is person by person. If this idea catches on like it has been it will create green "doorways" in every house to promote change.

I really hope this idea goes nationally. Even if you can't devote $1000, what about $100? Just changing your lightbulbs to CFLs would dramatically bring down electric costs! It's not just good for the environment but good for your wallet. In the long run all those "green ideas" will turn out to be very helpful. (Like composting and using it as fertilizer for some veggies maybe) Who knows!

Research of Lamps

The idea of recycled lamps is NOT new, however; the idea of using denim and bamboo is.
A lot of major design firms are working on sustainable or upcycled lamps.

Here are some examples from Droog. The 'Hang on Easy'N'Milk Bottles' They are all very strong compositions in the proportions and layouts of the lamp. The Hang on easy is actually my favorite. It has such a simple design and construction that would be very easy to make out of clothing that is starched. They have a lot more examples, but I find that most of them are created out of new materials, that are sustainable, or recycled pvc/plastics.

There are also many designers out there creating upcycled lamps out of discarded objects.

Below is from the site: Poetic Home Faux Lux http://www.poetichome.com/2008/09/23/fiat-lux-upcycled-lamps/

"Clockwise from top left: Upcycled vintage Tupperwares make cheery pendant lamps via Oak Boston; Chains and wire create a rocker style lamp via Etsy’s Swandieve; I always knew the Dutch were fabulous, and this great street lamp made of recycled soda bottles is another testament to their style via Flickr’s miek37; Reclaimed gear parts create industrial and stylish lamps via Etsy’s sksullivan667."

As for the creation of the light, it is not complicated to wire a lamp. The model I will be using for my project is very similar to what I wanted to create and its a fabric lamp. http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Fabric-Lamp/

As for my design, I researched a lot of antique lamps and found a few styles that I sketched out. I like how the lamp design I chose has almost a modern look to it and I liked the multied tier effect I there is from it.

Upcycled Clothing Furniture Creative Caffiene

For my third project in Social Design I wanted to make furniture out of old clothing specifically jeans. We learned in class that it takes a huge amount of pesticides and chemicals to make a single pair of jeans. In order to solve this and stay sustainable I want to take those "bad" materials and reuse them instead of throwing them away.

For my creative caffiene I wanted to see what had =been= done with upcycled denim already. What I found was that pretty much everything that had been done so far was a bag. Here are some of the products I found made of recycled denim:

For what I noticed with a lot of the images, the product was very crafty and very limited in the design. The idea of furniture breaks away from the simplistic image of demin bags.