Little Bit of Everything

This week I worked on several different things and did a bit of everything. To help with my decision on a colour combination, I cut and roughly sanded each piece. This allowed me to get a clearer idea of the individual colour combinations and individual marbled patterns, without a bumpy surface distracting from it.

Halfway through sanding, Sean came over and saw that my pieces are relatively thin. Sanding thin pieces using a sand machine can potentially result in injuries, which is why I was advised not to sand my prototypes this way. Instead, he showed me how to use the milling machine to create a smooth surface.

I’m glad that Sean introduced me to this technique of smoothing down the surface for two reasons: Firstly, I think the milling machine is a lot more accurate at creating a straight surface. The lines created while milling are less deep compared to the ones created by the sanding machine, which makes the final sanding with a wet and dry sandpaper and then polishing a lot easier and quicker. Secondly, I knew that I would have had to figure out a different way to sand the final table top, since that surface is going to be a lot bigger than the small samples that I have created so far. While working on the milling machine, we tried to figure out the size of the biggest piece that could be placed on the machine. Luckily my table top will definitely fit on there.

This week I also researched additional sustainable materials. As we had discussed during my Mark 1 presentation, if I use another material, I should make sure that it is sustainable. To expand my expertise on sustainable materials and to be able to justify my choice, I started to look at the sustainable alternatives that were currently used. Below is a short summary of all materials that I researched and whether they would be suitable:

• Metals: At first, they seemed like a great idea because metals are 100% reusable and do not lose any properties when they are reheated again. This means that technically no waste material would be created, since it can be used over and over again. However, the extraction of metals is an environmentally harmful process. For each kilogram of aluminium, 1,22 kg of CO2 is created. This is a lot of harmful gases and therefore I have decided against using metals.

• Ceramics: I looked into them because I knew that clay is 100% natural and the material does not create any harm to the environment. Unfortunately, it is a very brittle material and would not be suitable for long and think table legs.

• Straw: I saw that straw is used quite a lot in construction as an alternative material. However, it is mainly used for house constructions and is not really appropriate for making table lets out of it.

• Timber: While it is a natural product and reusable to a certain extent, the use of trees can often result in deforestation and it takes decades to grow reasonably big tree that is suitable for design work. Henceforth, I do not think this material is sustainable to the extent that I would like it to be.

• Bamboo: This seemed like a great product, especially compared to timber. Bamboo is very fast growing, it produces 35% more oxygen than trees and it can be used for soil repair. However, it is important to look out for responsible bamboo farms and if purchased in sheets, that the glue is sustainable too.

• Other alternative natural products: I looked into hemp and cork, who are new alternative products in design. However, hemp is more commonly used for fabric and construction and the use for cork has not massively changed from wine bottle stoppers and cork boards. Henceforth, I do not think these materials will be appropriate or available in the form that I need them in.

Ultimately, assessing all my options, I think that bamboo will be the best material to use. While I was down in the workshop this week, I also found a scrap piece of bamboo. I remembered Chris said to lay the material next to the plastic to see whether it fits. I laid out all the colour combination pieces next to the bamboo.

While I had previously preferred all combinations with blue tones in them, I realised that anything with green worked really well with the bamboo. I think that if I decide to go for bamboo, I will pick one of the green combinations.

In the workshop, where I found the bamboo, I had actually gone down to build bigger moulds for my plastic prototypes. I looked at existing side table dimensions to determine what possible sizes the table should be. From there I made sure that the moulds would be as close to the final dimensions as possible. I also did not want to just stick to square prototypes, so I also build a hexagon shaped mould.

I also finally went to the jewellery workshop to polish my yellow and gold prototype. At first, I did not think that much changed on the surface. After polishing it further, I realised that overall the surface looked shinier and felt slightly smoother.

However, because the surface was so smooth, you could see every little scratch. Additionally, all the scratches that had not been fully removed filled with a black polishing substance. Removing that was quite difficult and seemed to make the scratches even deeper. I think I will have to create a bigger prototype and see if it is worth polishing or whether it just adds extra problems.

Lastly, I had a tutorial with Polly at the end of the week. I basically showed her how far I am with my project. She mentioned, that she does not know whether a living room table is the right product in the best environment for the material. She said that maybe a cutting board for the kitchen or maybe a counter top could be a better alternative.

I spent the rest of the week thinking about that; brainstorming about existing products in both the kitchen and bathroom environment. From there I then selected a range of six products that I could possibly create out of plastic. I researched these and then came up with pros and cons for each one. Once that was done, I managed to narrow down my choice to three possible products: a side table, a stool and tiles.

I am still struggling to figure out my project’s direction. I am inclined to stick with the side table, but at the same time I understand Polly’s argument about the environment of the product. I think I will give myself until the end of next week to decide on a product.