Week 13: Resin Encapsulation

What is resin encapsulation: Resin systems are designed to protect and insulate printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electronic components from the threats of harsh and challenging environments, including; moisture, vibration, thermal or physical shock and general contamination. By encapsulating the entire device, resins can form a complete barrier against such environments offering superior performance under extreme conditions.

Materials needed: Mould, items to encapsulate, resin liquid, wax spray

How it’s done:

Step 1: Prepare the resin liquid

Step 2: Wax the mould with a wax spray

Step 3: Gather objects and place into the mould, you can also add objects in during the process (if u want the object to be at a specific spot)

Step 4: Once you’re done with arranging, pour the resin liquid into the mould and leave it to dry up in the sun

Step 5: When you see steam coming out, this means that the encapsulation is ready to be taken out of the mould.

Making the resin liquid

Place objects into wax sprayed mould

Pour resin liquid into mould

Resin moulds in the sun

Applications:

Reflection: This technique is relatively simple, however getting the liquids to the right temperature was abit tricky. I really love and appreciate the fact that we can keep living things “alive” and in their original forms after death. Resin encapsulation will be great if you’d like to make gifts for your loved ones!

Week 10: Fabric Etching, Bleaching, Tie Dye, Laser Cut

Fabric Etching

What is fabric etching: Fiber etching through a Fibre remover, removes fiber from fabrics, creating decorative patterns. Fiber Etch removes plant fibers: cotton, linen, ramie, rayon and paper. It is also very effective on fabric blends (and most noticeable on blends containing at least 50% plant fibers.

Materials needed: Velvet with silk back, Fiber Remover, Paintbrushes, Silkscreen, Squeegy, Iron

How it is done:

  1. Apply the fiber remover to the areas that you don’t want the design
  2. Let the liquid dry onto the fabric
  3. Iron the fabric until the design (silkscreened area) hardens
  4. Scratch the fabric to remove the fibers

My own attempt: Drew a tree but the effect didn’t come out as well as the samples in class. Probably because I didn’t add enough of liquid. This is the outcome after removing the fibres once it has dried. *** I found out that we have to wash the fabric once ironed… oops

Applications:

 

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Bleaching

What is bleaching: Bleaching causes a material such as cloth, paper, or hair to become white or much lighter by a chemical process or by exposure to sunlight.

Materials needed: Bleach, Fabric, Spray bottle, Water

How it is done:

Step 1: Fill the spray bottle with water and bleach, water to dilute the bleach (Alternatively, you can also tie up the fabric using rubber bands to create different bleaching patterns once the fabric is dried)

Step 2: Lay the fabric flat and spray it with the bleach

Step 3: Leave it in sunlight and the colour will start changing

Step 4: Wash and dry

Spraying bleach onto lace

Spraying bleach onto tied up fabric

Bleach sprayed on fabric

Fabric after a few mins in the sun

 

 

Applications:

 

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Tie Dyeing

What is Tie Dyeing: The process of adding/ changing colours of a fabric. Works best with cotton fabrics.

Materials needed: Fabric, dyes, syringes, containers for mixing (1 per colour), warm water, rubber bands, plastic sheet

How it is done:

Prep fabric

Step 1: Damp your fabric with water. Lay your fabric onto plastic sheet.

Step 2: Start tying fabric up with rubberbands. Here, I folded the fabric into a fan like shape and tied it with 4 rubberbands in equal spaces.

Mix the dyes

Step 3: Fill your bowls with warm water and pour the dye mix. Stir well.

Step 4: Once done, fill the syringes with the dyes.

Tie Dyeing

Step 5: Release one colour of the dye onto each alternate space on the tied fabric. Hence, the colours will be alternating on the fabric. (e.g. blue, purple, blue, purple)

Step 6: Spray salt water. This is to make sure the fabric dye retains it’s vibrancy and stays put on the fabric when washing.

Step 7: Leave it to dry for 8 hours. Once dried, rinse the fabric in warm water and leave it to dry again.

Step 8: Remove rubberbands

Completed product

Applications:

 

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Laser Cut

What is laser cutting: Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, but is also starting to be used by schools, small businesses, and hobbyists. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser most commonly through optics.

Materials needed: Acrylic sheets, Vector illustrator file with design on it (do note that the design has to be in hairline stroke of 0.01mm for the machine to recognise cutting)

How it is done:

When using the school’s laser cut machine, do take note of the rules attempting laser cut.

Step 1: Upload file onto the computer, adjust your vectors to contain within the space of the template file

Step 2: Reference the sample board in the room to adjust settings accordingly. ** Different thickness acrylics will have different settings for cutting AND rasterising

Step 3: Open the lid of the machine and place your acrylic sheet in. You can use the metal object to gauge whether the laser is at the right height (Ask a work study student to help if you’re unsure)

Step 4: Turn on the vacuum. Press “print” on the computer.

Step 5: Press start on the machine and the laser will start cutting.

Step 6: Once the machine has completed the job, lift the lid and collect your laser cut acrylic pieces.

Assembling the pieces together using a layering effect




Applications:

Do not attempt to cut fabric/ leather with the school’s machine! Cutting leather and fabrics uses a different kind of laser cutter.

Reflection:

Out of all the techniques here, I enjoyed laser cutting the most because I love how intricate the patterns can go. The machine is such a wonderous invention and if I can, I would buy one to use at home!! What I like about laser cutting is that it is a “controllable” technique unlike the rest of the more organic techniques, where you can’t control the flow of the inks/ bleach. There are many uses to laser cutting and whatever the surface, the outcome of are just beautiful!

Week 3: Field Trip to the National Museum


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This particular purse stood out the most for me because the it looks like it was embroidered with some sort of metal, accompanied by beads to accentuate the design. I was blown away by the high level weaving and at a close up, the patterns were formed threading each individual metal “circle” forming a round shape that is repeated vertically, with a line of beads separating them, row by row. This is craftsmanship at it’s finest! Colours are not necessary here as the textures are stunning on it’s own.

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This exhibit displays shoes of the types of shoes worn by women of different social categories in early 20th century Singapore. Bound feet was popular back in the days as it symbolised beauty and status in the Singaporean Chinese culture. The shoes are intricately crafted and embroidered with a range of materials such as beads, sequins, and fabrics like cotton, leather, plastic, velvet, silk satin and suede. I truly appreciate the details and work that goes into each individual shoe as most of  our modern foot wear are largely made in bulk productions for commercial purposes. From the level of perplex detailing, I can tell that a lot of thought (form, style, material choice, pattern design, colours) goes into creating these beautiful shoes to suit the Chinese women of that era. Maybe they were even personalised to the characters of each individual.

2D Foundation II – Point of View (Final)

Hey everyone!

When I came out with the different POVs, Joy pointed out that they were rather quirky and a few of them were geographical themed. So for this project I decided to go with a geographical theme! 🙂

Joy suggested during consult that doing travel brochures or postcards would be quite apt. I personally really love retro vintage posters of the 1970s. What I love about them are the use of muted yet vibrant colours and how they compliment one another minimally, even if it’s just 2 or 3 colours.

Retro graphics are usually irregular shapes or kept simplistic. To create the graphics, I referenced original photographs of the locations, and I made sure the style was kept constant throughout. To emphasize the retro look, I used vintage textures in the background. I also wanted to bring the message across in a subtle way, hence, it wouldn’t be the first thing you notice about most of the compositions. I also like playing with scale to emphasize distance/ of certain areas in the illustrations.

Since I went with a quirky theme, I wanted the “dots” to be subtle and not  “in your face” so that viewers can find it themselves.

1So here they are…

  1. A dot from the POV of New York City is the moon

R&D-01R&D-02R&D-03POV 1-012. A dot from the POV of a plane is a cluster of sheep

R&D-04R&D-05POV 2-01

3. A dot from the POV of a Hot air balloon is another hot air balloon

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POV 3-014. A dot from the POV of the Amazon forest is a new species

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POV 4-015. A dot from the POV of Japan is the circle of sun

R&D-08 POV5-016. A dot from the POV of Miami beach is a drowning man

R&D-09POV 6-01

2D Foundation II – Point of View (Research)

Hi everyone!

I’ve thought of several possible concepts regarding perspective, some ideas I got were “zooming in and out”, optical illusions, and playing with scale. One artist reference would be MC. Esher. He is a dutch artist that draws inspiration from insects, landscapes and plants, and most of his works play along the use of infinity, reflection, symmetry, and lastly, perspective.

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Attributes (with the word “Dot”)

  1. dot from the point of view of the world is Singapore
  2. dot from the point of view of the a sentence is the end
  3. dot from the point of view of the NYC is the moon
  4. dot from the point of view of a burrito is a speck of pepper
  5. dot from the point of view of a countryside is a crashing plane
  6. dot from the point of view of an artist is a million dollars
  7. dot from the point of view of an photoshop is one-millionth of an image (dot art?)
  8. dot from the point of view of “connect-the-dots” is a bridge
  9. A dot from the point of view of a designer is fashion (polka dots)
  10. A dot from the point of view of a snake is food (the game)
  11. dot from the point of view of caterpillar is eaten food (perspective of looking up)
  12. dot from the point of view of an assassin is a target (binoculars)
  13. dot from the point of view of Japan is the circle of sun
  14. dot from the point of view of Miami beach is a shark/ a drowning man
  15. A dot from the point of view of the rainforest is a new species

    Attributes (with the word “water”)

  1. Water from the point of view of the world is Singapore
  2. Water from the point of view of the whale is life
  3. Water from the point of view of a plant is growth
  4. Water from the point of view of an amazon is refreshing
  5. Water from the point of view of Singapore is Waterloo Street
  6. Water from the point of view of the bartender is gin & tonic
  7. Water from the point of view of a child is a reflection
  8. Water from the point of view of the ink is Art
  9. Water from the point of view of the hot air balloon is fuel (liquefied gas)
  10. Water from the point of view of the a jellyfish is wonderland

Attributes (with the word “trees”)

  1. Trees from the point of view of the Tarzan is shelter
  2. Trees from the point of view of an architect is a treehouse
  3. Trees from the point of view of an office is a piled up work
  4. Trees from the point of view of the ocean is a transport (sampan)
  5. Trees from the point of view of an owl is a hiding spot
  6. Trees from the point of view of a bulldozer is a work
  7. Trees from the point of view of a Christmas is a money making
  8. Trees from the point of view of a kids is Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2D Project 3 – Ego (Research) Part III

This week, I did a more in-depth artist reference research and I found many inspiring illustrations for my work. I’ll be drawing inspiration from their use of textures, colour schemes, brush strokes and styles. Here’s a sneak preview of my work… 🙂 Will keep the explanations for presentation!

 

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“Unfocused” (Winter #1)

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“Current Me” (Winter #3)

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2D Project 3 – Ego (Research) Part II

 

Brainstorming

During the week, I came up with many ideas on how I could execute this very personal project. Firstly, I thought of how I could showcase and explain my many different personality traits, graphically. I brainstormed and these are some of the themes that came to me…

  • Seasons/ Months of the year (Jan to Dec)
  • Subjects – Plants (e.g. cactuses), fruits (e.g. fruit juice combinations), outfits, crystals and stones, maps, birds, flowers
  • Storytelling/ narrative (A girl on a journey)
  • Style – collage (e.g. Dada, surrealism)
  • A house and rooms (rooms and spaces can portray different traits/ time, before and after)
  • Tarot cards (Past, present, future readings, explaining the 1) current me 2) an ideal me 3) me in 5 years)
  • Mandalas (Symbolize my journey through life, colours represents different meanings, bad and good)
  • Health – Exercise, nutrition, benefits (items are drawn in an orderly format/ playing with balance and symmetry)

Final Concept

I picked the seasons/ months of the year as my final theme as I thought there was a lot of room to explore in terms of conceptualising, subject choice, colours and compositions. Joy helped me further develop my idea by adding on a good point on how different seasons can portray a particular mood or meaning. For instance, “summer” is a time of “blossoming” and rejuvenation. It is also a period associated with euphoria. Hence, traits such as optimism/ enlightenment/ adventure/ spontaneity can fall under “summer”.

I did a variety of sketches per personality trait and the the “seasons” they fall into. Will explain further in the final Ego post! I apologise for the untidy notes 🙁

Adding on, I found a website that helps you pick colours you need according to the various colour theories 🙂 Check it out here: http://colorschemedesigner.com/csd-3.5/

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Joy also gave me a really helpful website that has all sorts of colour palettes according to themes, that can be uploaded by anyone. For example, if you key in “summer”, you’ll be able to select all sorts of palettes that people define as summer. https://color.adobe.com/explore/newest/

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SPRING: Screen Shot 2015-11-08 at 10.20.55 pm

SUMMER:

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AUTUMN: Screen Shot 2015-11-08 at 10.20.05 pm

WINTER: Screen Shot 2015-11-08 at 10.20.25 pm

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– WIP –

2D Project 2 – Rhymes (Final)

INITIAL SONG CHOICE + CHALLENGES

Initially, I wanted to work on the Christmas songs, “Winter Wonderland” or “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” as Christmas is my favourite holiday of the year and it has great significance to me as I celebrate it religiously every year. I truly enjoy the whole essence of Christmas as it brings my loved ones and I together after being away from one another through the year. Hence, my initial dingbats were based on a Christmas theme.

When we were told to change our chosen songs to rhymes, I couldn’t decide to work on either “Hickory, dickory, dock, a mouse went up the clock” or “The sailor went to sea”. I concluded that “The sailor went to sea” had more potential to play around with compositions and ideas. I think that I am a rather process driven, because most of the times I think of how I want the final outcome of the artwork to look like, what kind of style it will possess and how it flows. At the start, I intended to come up with something similar to retro nautical posters of the 1930s because the duotone effect could give the vintage feel. However, I thought that the overall style should be more of a collage, rather than a poster design. Furthermore, I felt that it was easier to create a sense of flow from the composition of collages of different stories combined.


RHYME CHOICE + CONCEPT

“The sailor went to sea, sea, sea, to see what he could see, see, see.”


was easy after doing several developmental sketches. Firstly, from a literal point of view, I came up with things that could easily represent a sailor and his life at sea (e.g. ship, coral reefs, marine life, binoculars etc., as seen in my sketches) Hence, concepts and topics like the titanic, global warming and pollution, the vastness of the sea, or a sailor and his story, came to my mind. This rhyme concentrates a lot on the word “SEE” too, so I thought that the concept could circle around this idea of what he sees on his journey. Also, after drafting out my compositions, I decided that I wanted the boat to be the key factor in connecting the four compositions together. The boat is small and simple and just in solid black to create emphasis to the contrast and vastness of the sea. The subtle placement of the ship in every piece will evoke curiosity as it’s supposed to be the main focus, yet it’s “hidden” amongst the other “happenings” in the sea.

USE OF DINGBATS

After studying Dadaism and surrealistic art, I’ve come to a conclusion that they are wacky and don’t make sense most of the times. So it was fun and exciting to come up with things that are unconventional and bizarre. I had to remind myself that the more unusual it looks, the more interesting it gets. Hence, it was rather easy to manipulate my classmates dingbats into my concepts.

COMPOSITIONS

After my discussion with Joy, she gave me some ideas of how I could make my work more intriguing. My compositions show the ship sailing the seas, (people would think that the sailor is in the ship, for the first two compositions), or could the sailor be outside of the ship? (the third and fourth compositions showed a pair of hands holding a bottle with the ship in it, were those the sailor’s hands and could he been watching it from outside it’s confinements?) I like how Dada and surrealistic art is ambiguous/ sometimes confusing and I played around with that concept through the 4 compositions. I wanted to keep it mysterious and leave the audience wanting to find out more.

2D Assignment 2 (1)

The first composition illustrates the ship in the midst of danger. A lunatic spider-octopus (SPI-DOCTOPUS) sea monster is about to devour a poor little helpless puny lamb. As if the spi-doctopus wasn’t scary enough, the huge waves and strong currents made it impossible for the ship to escape this chaos. Throughout my work, I explored with a lot of layering and textures in my work. Also to add to the surrealistic feel, I mixed several styles together for example, this composition has a mix of realism, vintage etching, cartoon, pop art, not forgetting the duo tone and posterize effect, all in one.


2D Assignment 2 (2) copy

Miraculously, the ship managed to escape the drama and was even in perfect condition! After sailing through calm waters for a day or two, the ship decides to take a rest. Beneath calm and serene waters, mutated sea creatures inhabited the polluted sea such as the BURTLE (BEAR-TURTLE) or T-EAR (lol). Untreated waste such as plastic bottles get dumped into the ocean and sea creatures can become snagged on the plastic or mistake it for food, slowly killing them over a long period of time. Also, is that the sailor underwater? Or is he just a random diver in a suit?

2D Assignment 2 (4)

The third composition shows a man holding a pair of binoculars, watching the ship as it sails the seas. Could this possibly be the sailor too? If so, who is he watching? Also, is he underwater?

2D Assignment 2 (3) copy

The final composition shows a hand holding a bottle, of which contains the ship sailing the stormy seas. Maybe the ship was actually in the bottle all along and entire scenario (first two compositions) were actually happening inside it? I made it more surrealistic and confusing by adding 2 suns, one in the bottle, and one outside in real life. I played with the concept of a message in the bottle here too. Maybe the ship is actually stuck in that horrifying world (in the bottle) and is in need of some serious help? Perhaps it is trying to SOS to the outside world?

2D Final


REFLECTIONS

Personal Thoughts

Overall, I really really enjoyed this project as it made me really think out of the box. Keeping it just black and white does have it’s limits too, so I knew that I needed to create interesting compositions to keep the focus on the subjects. This was elaborated using the different styles and textures as mentioned earlier. Though the use of our classmates dingbats makes it hard for us to visualize and work on the exact compositions we want, it actually trains us to “make do with what we have” and surprise ourselves with the unconventional art we can create from it. I’m glad I went through this exercise as it widens my perspectives of visual art.

Tutor’s Thoughts

Joy liked the use of consistent elements (circles, circular shapes, wave “shape”) as it indicates movement. The theme “bizaare” was used intelligently as well. She liked the use of different digital styles and the execution. She also thought that I accentuated the “dream-like” state of surrealism.

Classmates’ Thoughts

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OLD DINGBATS + NEW DINGBATS IN SEPARATE POSTS 🙂