Shell and Soap Forms
Final Project for Design Lab: Creating models forms for a shell and a mouse of our choosing.
To begin, I started with clay for the shell; that’s what I know best. I have some experience with hand building clay in high school, so I thought this would be a good way to get back into it. However, I still anticipate redoing this model later after I get more feedback.
As I expected, there was a lot that was wrong with my first attempt. Daphne gave me a lot of great pointers during the feedback session. It was especially helpful to see the lines drawn on top of my images. I think where I went wrong with my clay model was that I looked at creating it like an artist rather than a designer. I was originally just approximating the form, but I can now see how I can look at different parts of a thing to better analyze it.
I then moved on to the soap carving model of the shell. This was a lot more difficult than the clay model. With the clay model, I could continue edit it however much I want without any real drawbacks. However, the shell model seemingly only got worse and smaller the more I carved at it. The real challenge was planning ahead for the different spikes and other pokey-outey bits of the shell. In the end, my shell turned out a bit flattened.
My thoughts on the soap shell were backed up by some feedback from Q later (but that happened during the same crit as my clay mouse model).
My clay mouse was surprisingly rough. I think that this was more difficult than clay shell because all of my mistakes are more obvious on the mouse. Whereas on the shell, I could somewhat hide my mistakes behind the spikes, on the mouse it’s all smooth curves. I think I see the most problems in the surface quality of my clay and the little indent in the top.
During crit, I asked Margot for some advice on the indent and little raised bit, and she advised to use an x-acto for the actual construction and to make a template for the scroll wheel hold. Q also drew a couple very helpful lines onto my images to point out some errors. Using these, I definitely have much more of a clear direction to take after seeing Q’s suggestions.
In my final model, I chose to do paper. I think that this was the hardest model of all. While I thought my model was okay in person, as soon as I looked at the pictures, it’s obvious to me what parts are wrong. Here comes the sun do, do, do / Here comes the sun / And I say it’s all right / Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter / Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here.
My opinions were backed up by feedback session. I didn’t particularly learn anything new but it’s good to know that I was thinking in the right direction.
Inventory of my models before my final work session:
For my finals, I redid every single one of my models using the advice and critique that I’ve gotten so far. I think I’ve really learned a lot about using different mediums (additive, subtractive, lattice). In the end, I’m very proud of my shell models, I think they’re very accurate. My clay mouse model turned out well as well, but my my paper mouse needs a bit more work. However, it’s still certainly better than my previous paper model. I really learned a lot from Catherine, I love her so much.
