Pathway Week 1: Fixtures and Fittings

Fixtures & Fittings

Combining Materials

- Using a range of materials and combining them in as many imaginative, unconventional ways as possible, focusing purely on the joining technique used and not the outcome of the object.

Object 1:

    

For this piece I used three individual pieces of wood, as you can see they are all joined in a way that allows the object to stand freely. As the Balsa wood is soft you are able to create deep indents or alcoves into the surface of the wood, this was an effective way of allowing the separate pieces of wood to become joined. By simply putting the corner of one piece into the space created on the surface of another the two pieces become one. Also, the angle used allows the piece to stand. They are standing using their own weight, there isn't any adhesive used at all, the weight of each piece is holding them all together.

More Creations:

Object 2:

    

This was my most successful object, by a country mile. I felt that the way the two pieces of wood had been connected was far more interesting than any of the others. It was generally either a wooden joint or tape that I used to fix two materials together. What I liked most about this one was the odd shape that it created, it was unusual and it simply felt it just had more to it than any of the others I had made. 

    

These images are a great representation of how I have managed to salvage something out of nothing. The object I was left with was very unusual and so after a while of playing around with it and looking at it from different angles I begun to find a resemblance. Once placed on a platform the object looked somewhat like a bridge. I liked that this object was already a structure, it wasn't something that was huge and bold, or a shape I may need to multiply in order to create something new. The object already had a core structure and that core structure was very similar to a bridge.

  

Tracing allowed me to work with the shape and form in a 2D format. It was a very important part of refining the design as it allowed me to focus in on details that I wanted changed. Drawing and redrawing your design is undeniably the most essential way of developing your idea so this was a vital way of seeing my structure go from a random object to hopefully a fully refined bridge. 

Despite being so set on the idea that my final creation/outcome would be a bridge, it was also important that I show how I am experimenting with different ideas. I traced the shape several times and came up with a few ideas, the two most notable ones were a shelf and even a boat. 

The boat seemed like a lovely idea, it was certainly something very different and out of the ordinary. It was also something that I didn't entirely expect from my little object. By simply creating a basin for the structure to sit in it instantly turned into a sailboat. The cut up tracing paper was used to give it a bit more context. I was really surprised at the outcome because it was certainly something I didn't expect. However, despite discovering this possible avenue I was really pushing more towards the idea of a bridge as it was only a short project.

    

These are just a few images showing my model in context. It was important that not only do i design a bridge, or at least something, but I need to show it in context otherwise it doesn't make as much sense as it needs to. It could be an installation for all anyone knew if I didn't include images of it being used as a bridge.