Metal Spinning in Milan

I reckon the best thing I saw at Milan was this man metal spinning. We stumbled across this man in in a workshop in Zona Tortona, the process was really mesmerising. He kindly spun a small brass vessel and gave it to me, the vast amount of tools he had to achieve different effects was really impressive. He produced quite intricate decorative pieces in this workshop, for example pieces for churches.

Bronze Casting

Here are a couple of photos of bronze casting that I watched some fine art students do in the workshop a couple of weeks ago. It is such a mesmerising and thorough process, that I can't wait to have a go at!

Continental Tyres

Our current project is a promotional product for Continental Tyres. They require us to focus on safety, and family. We have taken the family orintated values of the brand and applied this to swimming, through the creation of a swim kit for families that makes the experience of getting changed slighty less stressful and more organised. I have currently been experimenting with casting rubber in the workshop, until I have some snaps of this heres a few images of the Continental factory in Hannover which I was lucky enough to visit!

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/uk/en/continental/automobile/general/home/index_en.html

Teatime

I have currently been working on a project around the living room. From this I have been observing interaction in this room, I focused in particular on tea and the ritual surrounding making it. I wanted to encourage the use of a teapot and loose tea in order to create a more social situatuion, as opposed to one person in the kitchen making numerous mugs of tea from a kettle using tea bags. In British cuture tea drinking is a common thing yet no one seems to have time to do it properly. So many people choose to drink tea on the go from a cardboard cup as they have such busy schedules, rather than taking a brief break to socialize with their friends and family.

With a teapot it forces people to be together, I have been using a teapot for the past month. I have observed and recorded why people opt for the kettle and teabag over the tea pot. I have concluded it is due to the effort of getting the teapot and milk jug out along with cleaning it. I have created an elongated tea strainer and a lid that houses this and a spoon reducing mess and keeping everything neat along with eliminating the chore of cleaning the loose leaves out of the pot.

These images show my development process and prototypes.

The Structure of weave

I'm currently exploring weave and its structural properties with the aim of creating a functional product that reflects the characteristics of the material. I have currently been using chair cane and lapping cane, the strength of this process interests me in the form of joints, I feel this could fit in with a minimal product, rather than the obvious, an intricate basket.

Gods Eye

Three way binding

Transom Knot

American Rafter Lashing

Mmmm Bio resin

For the past four weeks I have been doing a group project focusing on the re use and re cycling of textiles for the homeless. From our research, their main need was permanent storage, which doesn't exactly lend itself to textiles tremendously, however I perused the idea and came up with a storage proposal. I did a couple of bio resin samples, to gain an idea of what a bio resin composite would look like. The textiles are cotton, polyester and acrylic as they are most commonly found.

My idea is a storage box based on the structure of cardboard, relating to the homeless, along with the use of textiles found by them as they are highly resourceful, the design also includes the use of the homeless language. I intend this storage to be in places that really relate to the homeless, such as underneath Waterloo Bridge or Lincolns Fields in Holborn, it would also encourage community and appear to the public almost like an installation. The rest of the products in the range produced by the other members in the textile group include a sleeping shelter and a pair of rusacks, I feel all the products work nicely and offer a varied response to the problem of homelessness through an appropriate material. The work done in this project has generated alot of interest, along with the possibility of manufacture which is all very exciting!!

The lack of home

This week I went on the unseen tours of Londons Street voices, a tour run by the homeless. They walk around Temple, Shoreditch and London Bridge stopping at landmarks offering information and personal stories. It is ran by sock mob and offers a really interesting insight into sleeping rough, I met two really inspiring people called Viv and Mark. The tour offers raw information and opinions that cannot be found on the internet and books.

Their natural instinct with regards to finding useful materials is clear, Viv curiously picked up an old sock whilst on the tour, mistaking it for a glove. Her intrest into re using materials was really natural, and blatently supported her memories from tent and cardboard city along with her knowledge of making bashes. I went to do research into my current project that focuses on re using and recycling textiles into methods of storage from locally sourced materials. I feel the homeless have great initiative and instinct in terms of resources and this project would be the perfect oppurtunity to generate employment for them and a way of expressing their creative skills. This is similar to the work of Emmaus, they integrate the homeless into society by offering jobs in furniture restoration from found items. One of their main concerns is to reduce pieces ending up in landfill.

Mark and Viv Unseen Tours Londons Street Voices

www.sockmobevents.org
www.emmaus.org.uk