Student Work

Aesthetic Choice: As a fan of the modern rustic look a few people brought up in Aesthetic Explorations, I decided I wanted to do something with an old shipping pallet. I figured they would be easy to get a hold of, relatively easy to work with, and I would have lots of options for what…

Material Selection When starting our “upcycling” assignment, I decided that it would be important for me to source materials that are truly being reused, rather than thrown away. Moreover, I set a goal that I didn’t want to purchase anything for this project (I thought it would be bending the theme of upcycling a bit). When…

Introduction My relationship to the upcycle project can be categorized as nothing but tumultuous. The aspect of the this assignment with which I struggled with most was not time constraints or a lack of resources, but rather a barrier of creativity and originality through which I could not breach. I saw upcycling as a beautiful concept:…

The goal of this upcycle project is to create vibrant art pieces that you would want to hang on your wall, all for the low price of some milk jugs or buckets. What I will be melting down is HDPE plastic, or High Density Polyethylene. You can find this plastic in every day milk jugs.…

My upcycle project was a glass shard decorated bottle potted plant! To all of those who read my original “planning” post regarding my upcycle project – you may have realized that while my project function has changed, but materials are kept the same. You’ll read about why I ended up making this change. And that change…

From the start of this project I knew I wanted to make something out of cardboard. I had wanted to make a piece of cardboard furniture ever since I saw photos of cardboard chairs a few years ago, and this project was the perfect time to do it. Additionally, there was a ton of excess…

I decided to turn liquor bottles and spaghetti sauce jars into cups for my upcycling project.  The idea originally came from when my roommates and I did not have many cups and we started using old Prego sauce jars as cups.  Soon after we started to upcycle Prego jars I stumbled across a Reddit post…

One of my primary gripes with most upcycling projects is that they often seem to leave behind just as much trash as there was before the project started- after sawing apart a bicycle, or stripping the components and plastic from some discarded tool just to use a component in the name of recycling, I thought I would…

  Inspiration This exploration into an artistic creation has been very different than my usual design loop. I started with a problem of “make something”, which in itself is a much different jumping off point than I’m used to. What’s more, even once I figured out what I was going to try to make, I…

The Inspiration The initial idea for my up cycling project started with the currently trendy bucket hat. Although the bucket has long been the functional choice of fisherman and children while outdoors, it has recently caught on as a street wear fashion accessory. The current trend is a really unique aesthetic that is created by the fabric that is…

Introduction   My upcycling project began with a trip to the ReSource scrapyard and a faint idea for a sculpture design.  I quickly realized that my idea would have to change due to the available material constraints.  The brainstorming cycle became: “what could I possibly create with this material?”.  Many items would inspire an idea and ensue…

When I sat down to think about what I wanted to do for this upcycling project, I wanted something that could last, something that I would like to keep around.  I ended up using a blend of two things I like very much: beer and the United States of America.  I decided to use old…

TV Terrarium   I started CU’s Super Smash Brothers club during 2013’s spring semester.  It’s pretty well known that Super Smash Brothers players are notoriously picky about the input lag on monitors.  Three of the consoles most commonly used (the Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo 64) all output video via VGA standard definition cables.  When playing…

Figure 1; Design Process (Created By: Erick Pena, Gardner Nichols, Mathew Tabor) In class two of my teammates and I created an interpretation of the design process as seen in Figure 1.  The process that I followed was very similar to Figure 1 as you can see that the processes is not very linear as…

My inspiration for this project came from a few different things. First, I really wanted to use the most basic materials I could to create something new and artistic. I didn’t want to go to the store and buy a bunch of new material for my project. I wanted to create something that anybody could…

Inspiration For this up-cycle project I took old books and made them into decorative storage. My inspiration for this is from a product that I had when I was about 8 years old. It was a book-safe that had the appearance of a book, but also allowed for storing valuables. The first few pages were…

My vision for this project began with bettering the light in my living room. Much like many college homes in Boulder, the main rooms lack built in lighting. There is a lack of lighting over our kitchen table so I decided to design a chandelier that would add character to the room and light our…

After some exploration and creative thinking, I ended up creating a string of shotgun shell lights. I based my project strictly around using empty shotgun shells. I initially thought of creating art for art’s sake and using the shells as the border or outline. I also thought about using the brass to make drink coasters…

For my upcycling piece, I chose to make an abstract wireframe sculpture. For the body of the structure, I solely used straightened paperclips and rubber bands. The feet are made of Play-Doh. Inspiration The initial inspiration for the project was the idea of creating something using simple, repetitive tasks. My mind tends to race, so…

First Steps For my upcycing project I decided to make a home weather station from some recycled hardwood flooring and some spare electronics I had around the house. To start I used a DHT11 sensor breakout board to sense the current temperature and humidity. These values are read by an Arduino ProMini ($2 from sparkfun’s annual sale a few years…

Inspiration For this Upcycling project, my inspiration came from the Anthillart.com video on making anthill art from molten aluminum.  The fixtures created and sold on the website contained approximately 18 pounds of aluminum.  After facing difficulty locating an empty anthill near Boulder, I decided to try a different approach.  The YouTube artist “The Backyard Scientist”…

The upcycling process, for me, took some really interesting turns during the design process. I originally started off with the idea of creating art using cassette tapes and/or paper clips. This proved to be much more challenging for me than I thought going into to project. I could not get the cassette tape to form…

  Introduction and Inspiration I was scrolling down on my Facebook timeline one day until I ran into a video of someone recycling old credit/gift cards (traditional plastic card you use every day). The video featured him making keychains, guitar picks and replaced missing remote battery hatches. I thought it was such a creative idea…

Inspiration In Hong Kong I came across this shop called “GOD” (Goods of Desire) selling handbags made of woven seamstress tape measures. It was a clever way to make a durable product, but like most things at GOD, these bags were extremely over priced. Sometime later in the Guangzhou fabric district I came across the…

After a long two days of cutting, sizing, and stitching, I have finished my inner tube watchband. So far, it’s turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I initially chose to do this because I am a bike racer who has lots of bike parts lying around and I wanted to use…

Below is my design report for the upcycling project.   Design Vision/Specifications: When looking into starting the upcycling project I knew that I wanted to make a piece of furniture for my apartment. While I enjoy creating art, I felt that it needed to also have a function in order to be justified in bringing…

For my Upcycle project, I recreated the board layout used for the board game SORRY. This idea came about because I like the idea of converting scrap wood from a previous project into something useful. It sucks when you can’t use small sections after cutting up the main piece! Additionally, I have an Uncle who…

For the up-cycling project, I have decided to make a BBQ smoker out of an old beer keg. The reasons are makeing a BBQ smoker is simple really, I like good food and I like hanging out with friends. Smoking meats adds flavor while still allowing the meat to be very tender. This is done…