Thinking and Making: 2011

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

For our next, and final project, of the semester I will get to design and build my own chair! While I am a little nervous about using power tools, I really want to embrace this experience because this will most likely be the only chair I will design and make. Our first assignment for this project was to find a chair that will serve as our inspiration. I have chosen the Hill House Chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I learned about Mackintosh during my History and Philosophy of Design class, and fell in love with his work. I will include screen shots of my presentation on this chair. Also, here is a link to a wonderful video about Mackintosh, and his connection with Glasglow. While this does not specifically connect with the Hill House Chair it is short, and definately worth watching.

Final Blue Lagoon Book

These photos show my final Blue Lagoon Book. I am happy with how it has turned out, and I am just now finishing up my process book. This does not show every page from the book, but gives the general essence of the book. I decided to wrap the edges of the cover of the book, and I think that really helped to bring the whole thing together. In order for this project to be complete I just need to finish the other copy for class on Tuesday.

My First Website

For my English class, English 362: Technical Writing, we have been learning how to create our own websites. Here is the link to my website, but it is still a work in progress. We were able to chose any topic for our website, and I have made mine about my photography. I am pretty happy with how it is turning out, even though it is pretty simple because I have never done anything like this before. Enjoy!

people.ku.edu/~a442f514

Watercolor

These are just a few images of the watercolor paintings I have done this weekend for my book. I really like the colors so far, and I have had fune experimenting (especially with salt!). Hopefully some of these will help me to indicate the colors and patterns of the water I was surrounded by during my boat ride. I plan on compiling everything that will be included in my book this weekend, and hopefully will get some feedback that will help me to edit/change what I am including.

Some More Photos

James Bond Beach

Port Maria, Jamaica

Our Villa: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Blue Lagoon: Port Antonio, Jamaica

Mountain View

Words and Watercolor

So I have decided to dedicate tomorrow to water color. I don't have much experience with painting of any sort so it will be fun to experiment! You can see my recent purchases to the left, so I will post some of my hopefully interesting paintings soon! I hope to capture some of the colors of the water, as well as the texture of water.

Also, I learned about a website today that will take images from Flickr and use them to form words. Here's my name:

I feel like this could be a great tool for a website, blog, or just as inspiration for a project. I would have loved having this tool when we created the large, cardboard letters. They could have served as ideas for the unique formation of letter forms.

Using kuler (shown to me by Claire) here is a possible color scheme for my book.

I also was browsing the Booklyn website after visiting the Spencer Research Library today, and found this image that could serve as possible inspiration for my own book. Again, I love the colors the Lagoon has given me the opportunity to work with.

Mood Board

To represent the experience of a boat ride through the Blue Lagoon, I decided to take the route of a sort of mood board. I used some pictures I took, a few I found, and included some words off of an associated word list I made for this project. This board mainly presents the colors, and the idea of the experience to the viewer.

Also, I wanted to include some information on the Blue Lagoon. The lagoon is located near Port Antonio, Jamaica. The lagoon itself is around 185 feet (56 meters) deep. Our "tour" of the lagoon included several stops. First, the boat took us out of the lagoon past several villas right on the water. Our guides told us that many famous people will come stay at these villas, and to stay there costs about $1000 a night. Next, we passed Monkey Island. This small island was once owned by a princess. The boat then led us into the swimming pool area. This area of the water literally looks like a swimming pool, and you can see right to the bottom through the water. Then, my family chose to snorkel in the waters near Monkey Island. The waters were a little rough to go to part of the reef, but our snorkeling experience was still beautiful. We saw many fish, coral, and even a stingray. After snorkeling, we took the boat back into the lagoon. We rode around the edge of the entire lagoon. One interesting thing I noticed was a huge tree that had fallen into the lagoon, and you could see as the tree went further into the deep water. It was almost an erie sight. Finally, our tour ended after we left the boat, and took a dip in the mineral spring right next to the lagoon. Overall, my experience at the Blue Lagoon was unlike any other, and I was especially inspired by the colors in the water.

New Project: Experience as a Book

For our next project, I will have to represent an experience through a book. I must also be able to make two copies of this book. My original idea for an experience was gathering sea shells at the beach. I just went to Jamaica, and I thought this would be a good experience to portray through a book. Yet, when I was in Jamaica there weren't many shells at any of the beaches. During the trip, I had so many other experiences much more unique to the country that I decided to change from my original idea. One day during my trip, we went to the Blue Lagoon. I took some of my most interesting pictures at the lagoon, and our boat ride and snorkeling trip is something I will never forget. I have chosen to represent a boat ride around the Blue Lagoon as my experience. I made the following video to show an alternate representation of the idea, as well as give you an idea of my experience at the Blue Lagoon.