Twelve Twigs

This project was somewhat easy for me to start, but the followthrough was much more difficult. I began by choosing my Twelve Twigs. Through much scrutiny and exploration of twigs I decided that I wanted to work with The beautiful bamboo. These twigs look very similar, however they do have many differences that deserve to be accentuated. Differences in the way they change color, differences in hight, and differences in width are some of the few. The difficulty in choosing these sticks revealed itself soon after.  Because they are not the most common of sticks, finding a  way to accentuate this beauty without taking away from, or overpowering the sticks involved a lot of thought. I began with making a basket. The design of it was an upside down Chinese roof. However it could have been said to fit ANY Twelve Twigs. In the end I decided to spiral my paper around the bamboo, which put emphasis on the differences in size and hight, and also brought your attention to the color changes on the twigs. This spiral effect also allowed the work to have motion. Making this design movable by not binding the twigs to each other gives it a more natural feel as well as makes it more engaging.

Starting off this project was fairly smooth for me. I wasn't there when it was first assigned, but when I found out that we were working with sticks I knew exactly which ones I wanted to use, and exactly what I wanted them to look like. The sticks I decided to go with are bamboo, which are used most commonly in East Asia for things ranging from food to medicine to building materials and more. Because of this I chose to go with an Asian theme all together which led me to explore the different colors and other aspects of Asian design. In the end I chose to go with a red, textured paper, and golden flowers.

After choosing my materials I had the task of coming up with a was to make them into a "container" for Twelve Twigs. As I explored many different possibilities I came up with the idea of using the design of a Chinese roof and putting it upside down so that the twigs were rested in it. The roof design worked well, but after actually looking into the project I came to realize that it was not actually about making a container for some twigs. It was like the place for a leaf project in which we had to create a place where these specific twigs belong. Not just something that would hold them.

With my new found understanding of the project I decided to explore more patterns in my design. I used a woven design similar to the one pictured above to add more definition and give it more character, which in turn made it fit more with the theme of my design, which was an Asian theme. Unfortunately, it was still just a basket, no matter how well crafted it was, and I had to explore new ideas.

I could be found many days sitting at my desk playing music on my bamboo, trying to find inspiration while also keeping myself entertained until one day. . . . . One magical day came. It started out just like any other. I picked up my bamboo and began to blow into them listening to the magnificent sounds they created and POW! I realized that I could incorporate this aspect of the twigs into the design. Thus the idea of a bamboo wind chime was born.

BUT . . this just wasn't enough for me. I wanted to still be able to play with my bamboo whenever I wanted and to be able to create my own music without having to rely on the wind to do it for me. So I decided to go with a new approach. I organized the bamboo into a curve and hot glued them together, and then weaved paper around it to accent the changes in height that occurred, but as my final product I chose to remove this glue that binded them together. I instead glued the paper to each individual bamboo so that they would be mobile yet still maintain the woven accents.