Christine Zapata + art + design (thinking+playing)
As a first prototype for a woven stool design, I constructed the frame out of maple, and wove twine all around the frame. I plan on remaking this model, making a couple of changes to the original design, so that I can have a series of woven designs. They can either act as functional seating devices, or sculptural pieces.
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Our goal is to promote bike culture to children at a young age (2-6), through storytelling, building, and playing. With these tools, we are communicating the idea that a bike is not just for recreation, but is also a viable mode of transportation, and can be used to carry things.
In collaboration with Ilyssa Shapiro, YiWei Liao, and Yujie Peng, I designed and constructed various cargobike toy prototypes, laser cut out of plywood.
We tested our prototypes with children from ages 3-7, and learned a lot from these sessions. I was amazed at the creativity the kids practiced while playing with our toys!
We are currently in the process of refining our toy designs and working on getting everything packaged together nicely as a kit, including a storybook that will help get our points across. Check back soon for more on this project!
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Looking at the structure of trees and growth rings, and the branching forms of cacti, I made a vessel that would combine the two ideas into one. It was designed in the 3D modeling software, Rhino, and then sliced into 185 layers of rings. These rings were laser cut and then glued together by hand.
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A classmate, Meg Talley, and I, teamed up to customize an old foosball table. Originally, all of the players were male with black hair and orange skin. The only thing setting the two teams apart was their shirt colors. We changed one team into female players (cast out of plastic) and painted their skin, hair, and eye colors all different. The piece produced interesting reactions and conversations that I am currently observing as part of game play sociology and research.
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These are some of my favorite art and design blogs. Check them out!
1. Craft
Craft is a great blog for small How-to project ideas, craft reviews, and info on different arts/crafts-related events.
Written by Bruce Nussbaum, for BusinessWeek, Nussbaum on Design keeps me updated on the business side of design, as well as what’s working best in different areas. This is a different type of blog than I normally get excited about, but I think it’s important to recognize this world exists outside of my own “industrial design at art school” bubble.
3. Treehugger
Treehugger is a site that focuses on all things sustainable! It has a blog under several different sub-categories that I am interested in such as: science, design, architecture, nature, and travel.
4. BlogWILD
BlogWILD is one of my favorite blogs for inspiration and entertainment. National Geographic explorers share stories and pictures from their adventures from around the world!
5. MAKE
MAKE pulls interesting maker projects, a lot of DIY ideas, and lists Make events and winners.
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This is my design concept for a pill that would give you creative ideas when you have none.
Feeling a little creatively stumped?
Got a case of writer’s block?
Are you stuck in a mental rut you just can’t seem to pick yourself out of?
Get yourself a bottle of bright ideas!
Each capsule is filled with plenty of great ideas to get your creativity flowing again in no time!
Why infuriate your bosses by requesting extensions on deadlines when a plethora of brilliant thoughts is only one pill away? No more fumbling around in the dark only to run into a dead end.
This is the perfect solution for any creative professional, pioneering student, or wacky experimentalist experiencing the much dreaded mental block! (Also works for your everyday procrastinator).
Instructions: When creative impasse occurs, take one capsule and let your imagination run wild!
Warning: May cause brain overload, mind-racing, short attention span, panic and/or anxiety attacks and grandiose notions that may become extremely irritating when continually expressed to others.
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My friends and I recently took a road trip to Vermont, using road maps to navigate ourselves. We had a GPS and I had my iPhone, but we wanted to try to navigate without them as much as we could. 
We got lost a couple of times, but for the most part we used the maps to reach our destinations, and getting lost led us to interesting places we wouldn’t have seen otherwise!
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I went through every step of the process of green sand molding including mixing the sand, getting the clumps out by pushing it through a screen, packing the sand in, making the gate and passageways, pouring the aluminum, grinding and finishing the casting. I decided to cast a knock-off N64 controller, and have received interesting reactions from the piece. It is interesting to see who knows it is a knock-off and who doesn’t.
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Rory Mahon was my professor for sculpture Molding and Casting Fall semester 2009. He specializes in sand molding and in particular taught me green sand molding. Check out his website here: http://www.rorymahon.com/
The process of green sand molding is long but very fun and produces great results for metal castings. Read some more about green sand molding here: http://www.ballardbrass.com/processes/green-sand-mold.html
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I made 3 candlesticks using 3 different basic woodworking techniques and wood types: carving in walnut, turning in mahogany, and disassembly/reassembly in basswood.
I really enjoyed learning the different techniques, and plan to use them in some up and coming woodworking projects. Check back for more!
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