Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Leaf Project

When starting the leaf project, our first project of the semester, we were brought the challenge of making a place for a leaf.  Using any kind of leaf that we found interesting we were to create this place using only a 12.5X12.5 in. sheet of white paper and no fasteners.  Thinking of all the possibilities I could do with this paper I had many ideas to work with.  My first thought was to manipulate the paper creatively so that the paper was very abstract and related to the leaf in some way.  My first attempt was cutting the paper into long thin strips and braiding the strips of paper leaving 1/4 of the paper all connected to a solid piece.  I then took the solid end and folded it inward to create a circle with the braided ends sticking up in the air.  I then bent every other braid down into the bottom circular piece.  creating a "nest" for the leaf and bending the other piece above and around the leaf.  After realizing it was too much going on and that it didn't relate completely to the leaf, I needed to go back in and simplify, yet perfect what I had done.  My second attempt I used a thicker stronger piece of watercolor paper.  I then cut the long strips completely separating them.  I then decided to do a basket weave with the strips creating a box with loose straight ends putting the leaf in the middle.  The problem with the box is that it was too large of a space for the leaf, for my leaf was rather small and starting to curl a little at the edges due to drying.  So I needed to scale down my box so that there wasn't so much negative space around the leaf, making the leaf the main focus.  I then deconstructed the box and used only a portion of it and using the loose ends to weave and construct an almost basket-like form for the leaf.  My project was wide at the bottom and then became smaller at the top of the ring-like structure.  I then took the ring and manipulated it in a curved manor to represent the leaf's curvature.  I took the leaf from its stem and fastened in in the top thin part of the structure so that the body of the leaf curved with the paper structure in a fluid motion.  The ending product had texture due to the paper as well as the folds from the weaving.  Some of the holes within the weaving of the paper also help represent some of the holes in the leaf.  The finished product stood very well in its effort to be a place for my leaf that helped relate and represent the leaf as well.