So, as it goes I decided to change the direction of my upscale project. I had originally planned to manufacture my own wooden beads using the wood lathe in the ITLL, however this proved to to not align with the purpose of this project as well as I had originally hoped. First, the quality of wood needed to make small, proper wooden beads is extremely high. Specific kinds of wood are necessary, and these were unfortunately not available in the ITLL as scrap wood. In order to obtain the necessary wood, I would have needed to purchase my own, which would have defeated the purpose of being an upcycle project.

Second, the wood lathe available in the ITLL is not meant for such small parts. Rather, this is a machine purposed for high functioning, engineering manufacturing and would thus be extremely difficult to set up and carry-out the proper technique.

I digress. My current plan is to utilize the bountiful amount of cardboard that has been building up at my apartment. I believe this is more geared towards the core of this project (upcycling) and will prove to be a more reasonable direction. I love to paint, therefore I think creating thank you cards out of cardboard and using oil paints to add color and designs will be a fun way to both use material that could potentially end up in a landfill, and give back to friends and family that I am thankful for.

This may serve more as an Upcycling Inspiration Post 2.0, but I think that this will be a better directino for me to take this project. I’m going to try and make a few different types of cards, and I’m excited to present some of my different designs. I’m going to try and experiment with sewing together different types of cardboard to attempt a folding mechanism, and have a few different websites to spark my inspiration that can be seen below.

I’m excited to spend some time doing art and apply the sketching techniques we’ve learned in class to oil painting. I starting painting using water colors and have progressed to using oil paints and have appreciated the challenges that they bring. We’ll how well the paint works on cardboard; I may have to incorporate some of my sketching paper as an initial background.

I’m excited to see where this takes me!

Picture links:

Feature image:

https://www.google.com/search?q=oil+paint+cards&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ1JD-7LvnAhWXW80KHUJfCEUQ_AUoAnoECAwQBA&biw=1200&bih=650#imgrc=m6KMlBmAqvClRM

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.designsponge.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fdiy-project-cardboard-thank-you-postcards.html&psig=AOvVaw1VsIS-hyN-XiX5qHA-BH-7&ust=1581041074198000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCICy4o7ru-cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAn

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F520869513126779470%2F&psig=AOvVaw1VsIS-hyN-XiX5qHA-BH-7&ust=1581041074198000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCICy4o7ru-cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAt

https://www.google.com/search?q=cardboard+thank+you+cards&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjO7caK67vnAhWLBc0KHYqBDlgQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=cardboard+thank+you+cards&gs_l=img.3…4743.6275..6329…0.0..0.85.736.14……0….1..gws-wiz-img…….0j0i30j0i8i30j0i24.nEfq3nyb4jE&ei=KnQ7Xs6wL4uLtAaKg7rABQ&bih=699&biw=1200#imgrc=SUHgZM9M-M-fpM

https://www.google.com/search?q=cardboard+thank+you+cards&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjO7caK67vnAhWLBc0KHYqBDlgQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=cardboard+thank+you+cards&gs_l=img.3…4743.6275..6329…0.0..0.85.736.14……0….1..gws-wiz-img…….0j0i30j0i8i30j0i24.nEfq3nyb4jE&ei=KnQ7Xs6wL4uLtAaKg7rABQ&bih=699&biw=1200#imgrc=dE_rW-7RK5lbXM

https://www.google.com/search?q=cardboard+thank+you+cards&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjO7caK67vnAhWLBc0KHYqBDlgQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=cardboard+thank+you+cards&gs_l=img.3…4743.6275..6329…0.0..0.85.736.14……0….1..gws-wiz-img…….0j0i30j0i8i30j0i24.nEfq3nyb4jE&ei=KnQ7Xs6wL4uLtAaKg7rABQ&bih=699&biw=1200#imgrc=06DecQ5_cTNznM

https://www.google.com/search?q=oil+paint+cards&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ1JD-7LvnAhWXW80KHUJfCEUQ_AUoAnoECAwQBA&biw=1200&bih=650#imgrc=a36dt4pfWEAl1M