Tower

Challenge 48: How tall can you make something that stands up on its own?

Naturally, my first thought is LEGO.  So I get out the tub of Lego, spill it all over the living room floor and start to build.  Of course, it's not as simple as that.  There's the sorting out of undesirable pieces, the saving of awesome pieces, and so on.

After about 40 minutes of sorting and building, my tower began to look a little wobbly so I decided to call it good.  Here is the result - first, a couple different views of the entire tower:

A close-up view of the top.  I found a lot of pieces that I wanted to save to use on the very top, not limited to a shark/swordfish, a treasure box, a skeleton dude, some flowers, a cannon, and a barrel:

That skeletor dude is riding that big fish, backwards, while wearing a very sweet battle helmet and drinking a giant cup of wine.  He fears nothing:

That's my tower.  I measured it and it stands about 30 inches high.  I think that I've probably made a few taller pieces than this one before and could sit and play with Lego for hours, but today, my Skeletor Tower reigns as is.  Until one of the cats knocks it over.

38

Day 38: Work underwater.  Fill up a large bowl, vase, or old fish tank with water and create something inside of it.

Today, I filled up a small globe vase with some water and put a little ceramic skull into it.  Once upon a time, I had a full ceramic skeleton hanging from my rear view mirror, but he got a little smashed in a car crash and I only kept the head.

I thought about adding other items, but really enjoying taking pictures of the distorted skull, so I kept it simple today.  Look at this mellllllting faaaaace:

A bubble in the eyeball:

I was wishing that I had some food coloring to add, but worked with some carmine watercolor instead.  I was really envisioning some trippy Grateful Dead-esque kind of water swirls to take this project to the next level, but the watercolor didn't really work that way:

Goodnight!

Wirey

Day #34 Challenge: Work with wire.  Thin-gauge wire can easily be bent by hand, so no special tools are required.  You don't even have to buy wire if you have some paper clips handy.

I have some wire, so I made a skeleton!!!  It was hard to bend with my hands, so I did a very loose design.

Just look at these awesome shadows!  Probably my favorite part of the whole project today:

And I got a little bit playful with skelley and some t.p. here:

In full view, just chillin' on the floor:

I like making skeletons! 

Not really portable

Challenge: Make something portable (or that seems portable) that normally isn't.

I have to say, I really struggled with this challenge.  Almost everything I thought of to make portable already exists in some portable form.  It reminds me of when I travel, and there are all those travel-sized containers and other gear to help you pack light.  I really enjoy looking at all that tiny stuff, and get so impressed by the new things designers cook up.

So instead of working with the challenge and brainstorming more, I decided to take some pictures of a few old drawings I found while cleaning my apartment the other day.

I sketched this out when I was thinking of designs for a sculpture in my Metals Fabrication class in the summer of 2005:

I think I was more than a little inspired by Metroid graphics in this design.  Fun fact: I found a bunch of old mix cds while cleaning too, many from 2005.  I guess it was a good year?  In hindsight, it really was.  Here's a skelley:

I used to draw skeletons all the time and still really enjoy drawing them and finding quality skeleton imagery in art and design.  I also drew this guy in 2005, and man, I'm totally glad I put the dates on stuff as often as I do/did or I'd totally forget when I made things.  Here's something else:

A bunch of stylized balloons?  Who knows.  I really like it though, but sadly, I left this one undated.  And lastly:

I call this dude "Funky Shuffle Dancer" and I think I drew him sometime in the early-mid 2000s as well, judging from the way I had my name written on the piece of paper (cropped out).  I went through an intense few years where signing my name in a "cool" way was really important, oh me.  But I love how free this guy is in the picture!

I feel like I kind of gave up on today's challenge.  I guess these old drawings are portable although I don't usually think of them having that function, but I've been carrying them from place to place for several years now, so they work for today's challenge in a technical way.