Kite Project

Looking At Different Types Of Kites;

 

Google Kite Search;

Flying Animals - Birds, Bats

You wouldn't see them of a Night time, well possibly they could be visible, but I'll keep looking.

Insects- Butterflies, Bees;

Now a bee could work, the contrast between the black, yellow and white could be interesting, but would the black get lost in the sky?

After looking over Google images I came across a butterfly kite design which  I like quite a lot so using the paper overlay/cut out technique I am hoping to create a multi-coloured and very bright butterfly kite like these;

                                   

However, even bright paper might get lost in the dark sky, glow-sticks, glow in the dark paint could enhance the overall colours.

Trial Fluttering Butterfly kite;

Thinking of making a butterfly kite, I wanted it to flutter like a butterfly would; here I have just put a piece of dowel through the middle of a piece of paper, and after sticking it together I folded the paper over to hide the exposed wood. the wings did flutter, but the kite structure is not supported or sustainable.

 How Can I support The butterfly?

This would support the structure of the kite but I could then loose the fluttering, however, I feel this would possibly work in my favour to not let the butterfly have fluttering wings instead, I can choreograph a flight pattern. 

How to Make a butterfly- google search;

Quick  initial sketches...

Materials needed;
Paper - various colours
Card - various colours
Wooden dowel
String/ fishing wire/Wool
Glue Gun?

Trial 1 quick mock up;

Even after using bamboo it was hard to mold the wood into semi-circle shapes, as shown in the photographs, this kite was produced using normal bright coloured paper, so if I tried with tissue paper it might be easier to shape.

Trial 2;

Trying another technique to make a butterfly kite, using thin bamboo, looping the bamboo in to "wing" shapes, two big loops for the top half of the butterfly's wings and two smaller for the bottom half.

Wood split whilst moulding.

Trial 3;

Wood randomly just split after moulding

 Trial 4;

Using plastic bin bags and bamboo.

Back to original technique;

 Unfortunately I Broke this kite putting it in the car.

Using a different technique;

For this kite I have used a different technique of putting it together and I have changed the material of the kite to a water resistant fabric.

How my kite is made;

When in flight a strong gust of wind broke my kite straight in the centre before I even had chance to document it flying, so I took it back home and repaired it, I also added a pattern with neon pink paint that glows green in the dark.

 

  Delta Kite;

whilst searching on google for other ways to make a butterfly kite I came a cross a few Delta kites that had butterfly patterns on it, so if all fails with my attempt of making a butterfly kite I will make a delta kite with a butterfly pattern.

My Final Kite;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Furthering My Idea;

Half butterfly, half mirror plate, mirror plate strip- mirrors other half of butterfly, mirror plate could manipulate the eye into thinking the wings are fluttering.

 

As much as I do like this Idea, and I would love to have attempted it, I feel this idea is impractical for the amount of time I have to produce the kite I also feel that the kite might not even function, thus I am going to scrap any attempt of making the kite in this fashion.

V2 Rocket Engine

Initial investigation of the V2 Rocket Engine;

When we was given this project and the brief  "Industrial objects for non-industrial people" I had a really hard time trying to understand what we were actually meant to do, my initial response was to start researching the V2 Rocket Engine and this is what I found;

"This rocket engine powered Germany's V-2 "Vengeance Weapon" during World War II. The engine was a technical achievement, using high-speed pumps to move large volumes of fuel into the thrust chamber very quickly. Its design also contributed to American rocketry following WWII"

Rusty line up of v2 Rocket Engine body base

     

           Simple diagram explaining and showing parts of the V2 rocket engine.

This image is from the USA space center, it has brief information surrounding a life size scale of the rocket engine, Including when it and where it was constructed in Germany as mentioned in the above picture.

Initial drawings;

 Initial first drawing done in the first half of the drawing work shop, I feel this image is really 'clumsy' with the quality of line and I feel that the lines, are personally all over the place and not very 'tidy' even after refinement I eel this image is unsuccessful, however, I do like how the background pulls the image off the paper.
                                     

This is my second drawing created in the second half of the session, I like this image much more than my previous drawing, here I have experimented more, as you can see I have flipped the image upside down in a sort of mirror image, I have also varied the quality of line.

With this image I have just played with simple effects; this one is a simple black and white focal point, in which the whole image is black and white apart from the main focal [point which you can select manually.

Collagraphs;

First collagraph turned out rather light, in order to correct this I added more ink to the colloagraph and I also added another 'blanket' on to the bed of the press before pressing the image.

These three images all show my collagraph after I had cut the actual shape out from the card i had drew it onto, once again the first image is lighter so I repeated the same process of adding more ink and using a second 'blanket' on the press.

 The third image shown above has been produced using grey/charcoal coloured ink- 

I did the third by mixing a white and black ink together, I had hoped the ink would have turned out lighter, so you could see the actual grey colour however, I did not remove the second blanket and I also didn't clean the remaining residue from my previous prints.

Further printing using inked metal sheets;

These print were created my drawing straight onto an inked piece of metal, the photograph displayed to the left was my first attempt, the image is slightly lighter than the second image displayed to the right.