Karen's Design Blog

Weng Launch Party!

2010-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

We took our electric car (in parts) in to get powder coated yesterday! Now we're just finishing up some headlights and controller mounts, and getting set to present the car on June 1st. Then next Friday we're having a launch party! If you're in the area, you should stop by the d.school at Stanford and check it out!

building the electric car

2010-04-28T17:16:00.001-07:00

Here is a cool time-lapse of us making a unistrut prototype for our electric car: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreasmb/4560083742/ .

Weng Motors Website

2010-04-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

check out wengmotors.com for up-to-date reports on our progress building the electric vehicle...

Weng Motors

2010-04-04T22:07:00.000-07:00

New thesis direction - five of us have joined forces to build a concept electric car. Sort of a cross between a Vespa and a pickup. Here's my most recent prototype, with some fancy suspension on both front and back wheels.

a necklace

2010-03-19T16:31:00.001-07:00

This is last of my project for the silversmithing class - a necklace that incorporates the finding (clasp) into the design.

lost wax casting process, part 2

2010-03-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

After all the wax is melted out of the flask, it is put in a casting machine that pulls a vacuum through the plaster and helps pull the molten silver out to the edges of the cavities left by the wax.

Here is the same tree, now cast in silver.

It was pretty tricky cutting all the sprues off from the inside of the piece. Luckily the blade of a jeweler's saw can be threaded through holes and then attached to the saw frame.

And this is the final piece all polished up. The project was called the Volume Challenge - the piece had to weigh less than 1 gram in wax and not fit in any of the given boxes. I think this one passed the challenge. It was definitely big enough. The wax weighed 1.6 grams when I cast it, but then I did a lot of filing and sanding to the silver.

lost wax casting process

2010-03-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some snapshots of the long process I went through for one of my silversmithing projects.

First I turned a hunk of machinable wax down into an elipsoid using the radius cutter on a lathe. The photo above shows a piece of acrylic being turned, but the setup was the same for the wax.

Here is the wax after turning and additional drilling using the drill press. The large central hole was used to hold the wax onto the aluminum lathe fixture.

I used an X-acto knife, small carving tools, and the Foredom flexishaft with different sized burrs for carving out the inside.

It broke a couple times, and I melted the tiny pieces back together.

The I sprued the carved wax onto a wax "tree" with a couple of other parts that I carved for a necklace project. The rubber base that you see here fits around a metal cylindrical flask that gets filled with plaster. The plaster hardens, the rubber base is removed, and the flask is placed inside a kiln to burn out the wax, leaving behind pathways for the molten metal to flow into the parts.

and the completed photo holders!

2010-03-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the little photo holder guys after being cast in bronze, cut off the "tree," and polished up a little bit.
They were really fun to stack in interesting ways.
I drilled tiny holes and pressed in two little pins to hold each pair together. Since I had three pairs, I tried out some different finishing options. Here you can see one highly polished pair, one heated and treated with black patina, and one polished, patina-ed, re-polished, green patina-ed overnight, heat-treated, and black-patina-ed.
Here's a close-up of one of the bronze pins.
And the final product works! It makes a pretty good business card holder too.

silicone molding process

2010-03-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the story of how I made multiple copies of my photo holders.

First I sketched how I wanted the photo holder to work. I was inspired by the idea of having it look like two little people were leaning against each other and holding the photo with their hands. Since the two little guys were identical halves, it was perfect for a multiples casting project.

I carved a hunk of wax using the bandsaw, jeweler's saw, Fordom (like a Dremel), X-acto knife, and smaller sharp carving blades. It was tricky to get the 3D geometry right (this is not the first piece of wax I attempted to carve this design in...).

Then I bent aluminum into a U shape large enough to contain the little guy, cut two side acrylic panels, and sprued my wax carving in the center (the pink wax above) to create a path for the wax to flow.
I filled the mold with silicone and got the bubbles out by letting it set up in a vacuum chamber.
Then I cut the mold basically in half, but actually the dissection was a little more complicated for this shape and it had about 4 main cuts. All this slicing ended up breaking the original wax guy, but that was fine because now with the mold I could inject lots and lots of little wax guys.
Here is the vacuum chamber, original blue wax carving, lots of attempted half-injected pink waxes, a couple of good ones, and the mold at the right.

Whole World SuperSanitizer

2010-02-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

For this project we all designed art interventions that were thematically related to our thesis topics. After getting frustrated trying to come up with a good intervention to do in a bathroom (mirrors in toilet bowls...?), I decided to try and make a point about overuse of hand sanitizer. Some bugs are good, after all... So this is my world sanitizing machine. It spits out sanitizer (actually water). I think it just ended up confusing people and creeping them out a little bit. It is a very difficult thing to design both the artifact and the experience to elicit a specific reaction from people.

a ring

2010-02-02T22:49:00.001-08:00

My first investment casting project for silversmithing class, finally all polished up.

A Utopian Story and Artifact

2010-01-18T21:45:00.000-08:00

For the "expression" side of thesis this year, our first project was to imagine a utopia based on an expanded view of issues related to our thesis topics. Within this utopia, we were to imagine several scenarios and then create a physical artifact from one of them. Starting with an imagined story is always pretty difficult for me - I usually find inspiration in shapes, movement, and materials and then work backwards to the big-picture story. After some struggling, though, I worked out a utopian vision that was convincing enough for me. In my utopian world of Morphago a new branch of science has evolved to address the relationship between a person and his or her individual body, analagous to the way psychiatrists of the 20th century addressed the relationship between a person and his or her memories, feelings, and behaviors. Doctors who specialize in this field of sarcoscopy (literally "examining the flesh") meet with patients and help them understand their bodies (healthy or unhealthy) using tools such as x-rays, blood tests, or specific exercises. A mirror is one of the most basic tools used by the sarcoscopist and patient; it has a symbolic value as well as a practical use. The mirror I made magnifies on one side and shows a wide-angle view on the other, and it comes in its own carrying sack.

Holiday Presents

2010-01-04T21:30:00.001-08:00

Some earrings and a necklace, both made out of brass. The gears are from an old clock.

The Pelican in progress

2009-12-11T22:59:00.001-08:00

Testing out some parts of a piece named "the pelican" for its awkward way of moving...

Personal Statement Piece

2009-12-05T22:57:00.001-08:00

"Personal Statements" is a project that all of us second year design students just finished. We each spent the last two weeks creating a piece with the intent of introducing ourselves to the design community. On Friday night we had a big presentation and party with lots of alumni and faculty, plus friends and family. It was a wonderful night - everyone's project was just a perfect presentation of the variety and talent of the design program.

My piece was inspired by a toy I had when I was younger that was made up of a hoop with colorful washers strung on it. If you spun the washers and the hoop just right, you could get the washers to hover on the side of the hoop. I built a much larger version and powered the hoop with an old typewriter motor hooked up to some pulleys I made. The hovering rings I made out of acrylic and polycarbonate, and each one has a magnet on the inside. Initially I thought the magnets were what made the hovering thing work, but I was wrong... it's a purely mechanical effect caused by the wobble of the rings as they fall in a helix around the hoop. As the hoop spins, it gives the rings a little lift. It's a pretty magical effect, and the noise the spinning rings make is great. My favorite part of the evening was watching how the hovering rings fascinated people and hearing their crazy explanations for why it worked.

in progress...

2009-10-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

first-aid project

2009-10-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

For my Medical Device Design class, our first project was to design a first-aid product or improve an existing one. I decided to make a Band-Aid dispenser that you could use with just one hand, since I've noticed it's pretty hard to open those sterile bandage packages when you've cut your finger. My redesigned Band-Aid packaging comes with suction cups to mount it in the bathroom and a ratcheting crank to hold one side of the sterile packet while you peel off the outer covering.

some initial prototypes

2009-10-18T13:59:00.001-07:00

For my master's thesis project this year, I'm working on designing some gynecological devices. These are a couple of prototypes I've made to test out suction and curved pinching as ways of holding onto tissue. In the top photo you can see me trying out the suction method on a chicken thigh - it works pretty well until you poke the tissue in the area surrounding the suction cup, which breaks the seal. Stayed tuned for further prototyping updates...

a container for wires

2009-10-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

I built this steel holder for my assorted wires and tubes so that I could start the new school year out with some well-organized materials. The project also gave me a good way to practice welding.

a collaboration with d.goligorsky

2009-05-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

David Goligorsky proposed that we do a collaborative kinetic sculpture in which he would pick out some materials that he liked and I'd put them together. This is the resulting gizmo in action. The idea for the reciprocating mechanism came from a visit to the Da Vinci exhibit at the San Jose tech museum last December. You can see David's blog here: http://thegoligorskylaboratory.blogspot.com/

aquarium-inspired mobile

2009-05-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

This hanging mobile was inspired by the movements of jellyfish and shrimp at the Monterey Bay aquarium.

a springtime vase

2009-04-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

This is my first project for a class called Professional Design Explorations. Every week we present pieces that we have made in response to the previous week's field trip. The form of the base of this vase was inspired by the shape of St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, which we visited last week on Good Friday. The egg shape of the vase's rim was also inspired by it being Eastertime. The thin white plastic and asymmetric form remind me of a calla lily flower, which makes me think it'd be fun to try making a taller, thinner version...

balancing blocks

2009-04-04T16:25:00.001-07:00

This set of building blocks was my last project from winter quarter. The angled edges of the blocks make it necessary to counterbalance them using the dowels in order to make them stand up. The structures that result are sensitively dependent on each block - removing just one can upset the balance and make the whole thing fall down.

Illuminating Object Party

2009-03-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

an awesome time-lapse video of the party:

http://www.vimeo.com/3534293

Illuminating Object

2009-03-08T18:24:00.001-07:00

These are a few pictures of my illuminating object - the Vogel Pendant by Volare Lights. It's meant to be a reading light suspended over a Corbusier chaise lounge. The tilt of the arched copper piece can be adjusted by moving the magnetic steel counterweight, and the whole thing can be rotated about the axis of the copper tube that connects to the ceiling plate. I wish the height were adjustable too - the cables should come through the copper piece and be perfectly counterweighted so that the light can be raised out of the way or lowered for more directed illumination.

a book

2009-02-20T19:05:00.000-08:00

This is my book project for art studio class. Yesterday was a really good day for the class critiques. The professor, Matt Kahn, laughed like a five-year-old over David's temperature-sensitive pillow, hugged Brooke for her wooden bowl, called Stephanie's wireframe gestural sculpture "exquisite," and teared up over this little book.

a poem

2009-02-20T18:23:00.000-08:00

I am in a seminar class called The Designer's Voice, in which we talk about our worldviews, meet some interesting speakers, and read articles related to finding our individual voices. This week we all wrote poems, motivated to some extent by Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Common Things." It was really great to hear everyone's poetry, which absolutely reflected each person's inner voice. Here is mine:

Meditation on a Cup of Coffee
-Karen Shakespear

A time apart
sacred, reserved,
given space, encouraged,
allowed and understood.
A cup of warmth and comfort,
a passage to a place
of inspiration, motivation,
energy and grace.
Physically fleeting, a whiff of grounds
with a promise of endurance,
of stimulus found.
A magic ritual
the affirmation of a faith.
A complex intertwining,
participation in a race.
Imagination, history, exploration and romance,
power struggles of caffeine
chemistry in a dance
Atoms in the brew, electrons flying through the mind,
But this
is the seduction of a ritual,
the grip of built relations:
immutable, invisible, complete and indivisible.
Wordless meaning, untouched by symbols
that laughs at human passions
Those efforts of a bean
yearning to understand his branch;
Those wild dreams of fundamental truth
born in the wrinkles of each plant.
Screaming everything
is all there is.
All the wrongs,
all the causes,
all the longings,
and all the losses.
It doesn’t matter
that we can’t see it;
we don’t know it
can’t claim it.
No one can teach it,
write it,
buy it,
or name it.
Because we are it.
We make it.
We play it, we fake it;
we build it and brake it,
we mix it and bake it.
And serve it, with warm coffee,
seven days a week:
reflections and expressions,
perceptions of the deep.

Final Pen Models

2009-02-16T11:37:00.001-08:00

Here are (finally!) a couple of photos of my final pen project. The top one is a pen in the style of David Goines, and the bottom one is a pen in the style of Santiago Calatrava.

wooden bowl

2009-02-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

I turned this poplar bowl for art studio class. It was more difficult that I thought it would be to make it asymmetric.

Coffee Press from last quarter

2009-02-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

Just realized I hadn't posted pictures of my final project for Design and Manufacturing last quarter. I used an existing glass vessel, mesh, and handle from a french press and then manufactured the other components mostly out of aluminum. There are also a couple of vacuum-formed plastic parts.

Motion Project for Art Studio

2009-02-15T17:16:00.001-08:00

I designed and made this gizmo to explore the idea of wheels that have no axle and are not circular.

3 Pens in 3 Styles

2009-01-28T17:28:00.000-08:00

Our Formgiving assignment (due today) was to come up with 3 pen designs based on the design languages of three different designers (artists, architects, industrial designers, etc.). We have to make our two best designs for a week from this Friday. I choose Joan Miro, David Goines, and Santiago Calatrava. I'm just posting my David Goines design here, because it was my favorite.

Chiaroscuro

2009-01-27T14:41:00.001-08:00

This is my first completed project for Art 160. It is a pen drawing based on a photograph I took of a cathedral in Zagreb, Croatia a few years ago.

Design Students in the News

2009-01-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

read about some loftees in "print"!

http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=2199

Personal Statements Event

2009-01-24T16:45:00.001-08:00

The Personal Statements Party is over! In the end it all worked out fine, even though the postcards didn't ship out on time. I hope I never plan another party ever.

Trip to LA

2009-01-24T16:41:00.001-08:00

Pink Foam Models

2009-01-24T16:23:00.000-08:00

These are (grayscale) pictures of my pink-foam models for the Opposite Forms assignment. The top one is Sacred and Secular, which I simplified a bit from my original marker rendering, and the bottom one is Open and Closed. For that one I modified my original design so that the pair appears to be two states of the same object, which seems to make the contrast between open and closed much more obvious. During the class critique, there was some concern that the form I chose was not "essential" - that it had extra edges and details that made it into a "product" instead of just a fundamental form. But overall I think the opinion was that it was so nice-looking and clear that it didn't matter so much if it wasn't the most essential form.

First Formgiving Assignment

2009-01-15T16:15:00.001-08:00

Our first assignment was to render three pairs of opposite forms in marker. The first one here is Secular vs Sacred - contrasting an earthbound, impure, grid-like form with one that is more aspirational, symmetric, and stellated. Next is Emotional vs Rational, which was my least successful one during the class critique. I saw this pair as demonstrating two ways of approaching the problem of spanning from one spot to another - the rational arch vs an intuitive, expressive, emotional leap. And my last one is Open vs Closed.

bike trip to berkeley

2009-01-15T16:13:00.001-08:00

Here's my bike on the way to Berkeley to visit Audrey this past weekend - you can just barely see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

New Year's Resolution

2009-01-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

I have decided to continue posting updates on what I am working on into the new year, even though the ME 313 class is over. So to start out, I'm sharing some photos of my Christmastime project (which I gave to my family). I guess it could be called The Wobbler: it's a toy that waddles down a ramp while waving a feather in the air. These guys grew out of an Art 60 assignment to create something that moved in an engaging way.

DP3: Energy Conservation Progress

2008-11-17T13:14:00.001-08:00

Since my last post, Brian and I have revised our plan of attack for this project. There was some concern that our previous ideas about using advertising to get consumers in contact with already existing energy tools was basically eliminating our role as designers from the issue. Now we are looking at making some engaging, easy-to-use tools for residential users to investigate and limit their power consumption. We have so far prototyped three ideas. The first is a fridge-magnet-sized display that shows a graphical representation of the target energy use, current use, and community demand (which correllates with the tiered cost system, showing the user when electricity is expensive and when it is cheaper). The second device is a hand-held power meter that tells the user how much power a device is using. It works by clamping around a power cord and measuring the inductance. The third device is a switch that would be mounted near the door to the house. The switch would communicate wirelessly with its associated plug devices and enable the user to turn off the TV and computer, for example, when leaving the house (in order to eliminate vampire power usage).

DP4: Energy Conservation

2008-11-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

We are now into our fourth design project. This one is sponsored by PG&E and is centered around reducing energy use through behavior modifications, which are realistically the only method of energy reduction that can be effective in the very short term (next two years) to deal with the energy crisis. Our interim presentation is today, and I am a bit concerned about how our ideas will go over with the representatives from PG&E as well as our professor. After doing a lot of needfinding interviews and looking at what devices are currently available for home energy monitoring, we've concluded that a snazzy new interface for a smart meter is not really what is most needed right now. Instead, we're proposing that PG&E take the devices already available to monitor energy consumption (like the Vera system, for example, at www.micasaverde.com) and make then afordable and easy to access. The fact that these devices are not beautiful or perfect yet will not matter to the early adopters of home monitoring technology. There is a group of energy consumers that is quite concerned with their efficiency and very willing to try new technologies, like Peter who we interviewed. By enabling this small subset of consumers to try out these technologies NOW, instead of trying to develop the perfect energy interface first, PG&E can leverage the experiences and input of the initial users both in designing more targeted monitoring devices and in spreading personal stories from the early adopters to their larger consumer base in order to motivate the next wave of adopters.

A Few Cool Links

2008-11-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share these with y'all:

1) recycled-glass-bottle temple: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/10/27/temple-of-a-million-bottles/

2) a design review website: http://www.notcot.org/

3) and a more techy-gadgety design review: http://www.oobject.com/

A shout-out to Kawika, Arran, and Alanna for their recommendations!

Kunga

2008-11-02T16:23:00.000-08:00

Here is the video of our design solution for Humana's health and wellness project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyytH_79CnM .

Hyejin was the actor, I was the puppeteer, and Andrew was the cameraman.

DP2: Health and Wellness

2008-10-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

Our current design project focusses on needfinding regarding the general issue of well-being and health. The goal is to come up with a product or system that will make people healthier. Based on many interviews and synthesizing sessions, my group (Andrew and Hyejin, pictured above) has decided to focus on increasing body-awareness and encouraging good habits, specifically for the user group of sedentary office workers. We are finishing up our prototype tonight, and then tomorrow we will be filming a short video clip of the "product story," a week in the life of an office worker using our product, Kunga. Kunga is an Americanization of the Korean word for health. Stay tuned for next week's project wrap-up report...

Reflection: Design as a Form of Intelligence?

2008-10-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

After reading Nigel Cross's "The Nature and Nuture of Design Ability," I spent some time this past weekend thinking about whether design ability is a form of intelligence in its own right, on the same level as linguistic, musical, or bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, for example. Cross argues that design ability is separate from these previously awknowledged forms of intelligence. I am not so sure - it seems to me that what is special about design is that it draws on all types of intelligence. Our classes seem to be selected to help us develop fluency between different types of thinking. We spend time in Art 60 developing our visual language, in Calibrating the Instrument developing our improvisational and physical skills, and in ME 203 gaining machining knowledge. I have a hard time pinpointing something that is truely unique to design. I tried listing skills that designers use and associating them with other professions that seem to employ the same type of thinking. These skills cover a huge variety of professional fields - in any single project, designers have to be able to switch between these modes of thinking.

DP1 wrap-up

2008-10-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of our final prototype and a sketch showing how our emergency shelter can be arranged in a "circle-the-caravans" configuration to create larger communities from our two-person sleeping units. The central area is intended to be open for cooking and socializing, as well as providing a contained space for watching small children. The next sketch shows how the shelter is deployed. The user pulls on a handle connected to a string, which first tugs on the velcro holding the foam compressed and causes it to unlatch. The foam roof then expands upwards. As the user keeps pulling on the handle, it catches on the front of the foam roof and the pulling action helps assist the foam in expanding. Once the shelter has been deployed, there is a latch mechanism that can be engaged to keep it stable.

DP1: collapsible, self-deploying emergency shelter

2008-10-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

These are some early sketches and prototypes for our emergency shelter design. It is meant to be air-dropped in a collapsed state and then easily deployed (perhaps by illiterate children) in a crisis situation (earthquake, flood, etc.). Stephanie (my teammate) also has some pictures on her blog: http://palomitasdemaiz-design.blogspot.com .

Reflections #1: Mindmap

2008-09-28T20:54:00.001-07:00

This is a mindmap reflecting on the connections between "design" and "designer."

Favorite Tool Mock-up

2008-09-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

I made a mock-up of my favorite tool, the Exacto knife. I like how versatile it is - good for opening packages, cutting paper, wood, metal, cardboard, plastic - and how detailed and precise it can be.

First Design Project

2008-09-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

Our first (two-day) assignment was to come up with a way to make digital memories (photos, videos...) physical and more meaningful than a folder on a computer. My product, Memory Cubes, is designed to be a storage system that doubles as a lighted display. Each cube (2.5" tall) contains a USB storage device to hold a collection of photos (or other digital assets). When the cubes are stacked on the display platform, they light up and a picture from inside the cube is displayed moving slowly around the sides of the cube. Each stack of cubes could represent a year. Individual cubes containing stored photographs would be easy to give as gifts or purchase as souvenirs to add to one's display platform at home.