elle lumine

Lulu Book

2009-05-13T08:51:00.002+01:00

we had a hand in of a Lulu book, a self published book and you can buy it here or download it on the same page.

Working

2009-05-13T07:12:00.002+01:00

Video showing the product working. With thanks to Alison and Rona for modeling.

www.jacquelinefrary.co.uk

2009-05-13T05:26:00.006+01:00

is now live:

www.jacquelinefrary.co.uk

Degree Show website

2009-05-13T05:26:00.005+01:00

Find the Degree show website here:

05

Images

2009-05-13T05:25:00.020+01:00

Many late nights spent sanding, sewing and soldering later i finally have my finished products. A Black and a white one. Some images to wet your appite

User Testing

2009-05-13T05:25:00.019+01:00

Images and a video of user testing and ladies interacting with the product in erm interesting ways.

you can't see the writing at the begining so heres what it says:

Inb a world where we are bombarded by the media of the perfect body, it can be hard to feel beautiful, sexy and confident. ElleLumine has been designed to evoke these emotions in a woman by cascading light down the leg to tease out the elegance and confidence from with in, intensifying this stunning part of a woman's body. Its opulent and ornate design indulges in spohisticated feminine glamour making anytime you wear it feel like a special occasion. A seductive adornment to see your legs in a new light.

Switch and screws

2009-05-13T05:24:00.009+01:00

I deliberately bought longer screws than need - 12mm - so i could adjust them to fit my perspex. to cut to right size:

1. thread a nut to keep the screw thread in tact.
2. clamp
3. Use a hack saw to cut to desired size
4. file the end to give a smooth finish.

this doesn't take long but the screws are M2 in my final product so as with everything in my product it is tiny and hard to handle but I'm a pro at this now. however cutting 10 screws is not much fun.

For my switch to work properly, since people aren't actually going to be touching the plastic bit, i had to come up with a way of being able to pull it up and down from outside the perspex. Once again my switch is tiny. In fact it is called a sub miniature sliding switch so i needed to devise a way of getting a hole through it to get some thread through. I went down to the work shop and the smallest drill bit is 1mm diameter, tiny i hear you cry, not small enough for me though as my switch is only 2mm wide! Sean the IPD technician suggested heating a needle, yes a needle to try melt the plastic of the switch. That's exactly what i did. I headed the plastic of the switch with a hot air gun and hammered a needle through it and managed to thread it. I did however have to got through 4 -5 switched before i got it down to a tee.

Sewing in LEDS

2009-05-13T05:24:00.006+01:00

It takes an absolute age to sew in my L.E.Ds just like everything in my project. Nothing wants to go fast, but i've learnt to cope with it. Just some images of the L.E.Ds installed.

chandelier perspex

2009-05-12T05:55:00.000+01:00

I wanted to change the design of my perspex as i felt it was not intricate enough or did it really tie in with the product. I decided to change the design to a chandelier to play on the word "light" and found a royalty free beautiful vector online. It provided me with the detail and beauty i wanted and cost a fair bit. So I'll show you the process of making my perspex.

Firstly lets start with the file. drew it up in illustrator with space for switch, battery and screws. one piece has holes slightly smaller to tap for the screws.

after going down to the laser cutter several times and realising that something was the worn size or even worse getting it sent away and paying for it to be the wrong size, i had learnt my lesson and tested over and over to make sure the files were right and everything would fit together. I did this the quick and easy way - print it out.

the laser cutter in uni took 4 cuts at speed 10% and power 100% to cut through the perspex. this took about 15 mins a set then the raster which took about 2 mins at power 80% speed 30% and then the sink for the screws roughly a min at the same speed as the raster but 4 times again.

the perspex pieces before they are glued.

I taped the holes at this point to use M1.6 screws. I had tapped 9 holes and had 1 more hole to tap and the tap broke - great!! so had1 screw short in one of the pieces. I later found out that my taps hadn't worked so ended up having to get the pieces all re-cut and tapped but i got this done by SJS laser cutting as by this point trying to get on the uni laser cutter was practically impossible.

then the perspex needs to be glued and clamped. two back pieces together and two front pieces. It is easy to get the back pieces in line as i just put a screw through them and tightened with a bolt. the front two a little trickier. I had to glue two off cuts of perspex together lined up to use a as a holder and clamp. the black perspex can be glues using many glues. I ended up using liquid cement but you can use chloroform but this interfered with my threads as chloroform melts the plastic together. Mirrored perspex however is very hard to glue as the perspex itself is clear and it is a coating on the back which makes it mirrored. this coating comes off with both chloroform and liquid cement and is also very fragile. I had to coat with silver leaf before gluing with epoxy resin to make sure it would stay mirrored.

Perspex is so easily scratched you have to keep going until it is almost perfect. you sand away a few mm so i accounted for that in my laser cutting file. you can use brasso to shine it up and T-cut to remove most of the scratches. you have to start with a coarse sand paper and files to get the shape and work your way up using finer and finer grit. IT TAKES AN AGE!!! to get a shine finish took it down to the jewellery workshop and buffed it on a special machine.

So that's how its made. It took me so many attempts to get it right and there are so many problems with perspex . I'm still not 100% happy with my perspex, I had to get the mirrored one sandblasted at the edges and there are still lines in the black but I'm out of time and it doesn't look too bad.

What is in a name.

2009-04-14T21:27:00.002+01:00

The name elle lumine comes from the word 'illumine'

il·lu·mine

(ĭ-lōō'mĭn)
tr.v. il·lu·mined, il·lu·min·ing, il·lu·mines
To give light to; illuminate.

but since 'il' is masculine in french I changed it to 'elle' which is feminine meaning her. elle lumine means to give her light in a way. cleaver no?

but i can't take all the credit, suzie q in my class found illumine and along with a few other people in the class we came up with elle lumine. thanks guys.

testing

2009-04-14T20:58:00.002+01:00

emailed Peach Fur and Strumpet and Pink to see if they want to user test for me. Fingers crossed. Peach fur based in Dundee and Strumpet and Pink in Edinburgh

Adding Beauty

2009-04-14T15:13:00.000+01:00

So it was coming down to crunch time, my silk HAD to get made. I went in to see Dundee Stitch Masters - recommended by Gus, who sometimes teaches things on IPD- to see if they could make my a garter from scratch and how long. I went in with absolutely nothing and tried to explain myself, she told me to come back with a drawing and they would see what they could do. I thought i better make a prototype cause i had no idea what i wanted. I pretty much decided on ruffles as not only did they look good i thought they would give out better light as it would allow the light to flow down the leg. I tried this out in the picture 3rd from top. before the silk was restricting the light.I bought a roll of black wrapping paper and sheets of black tissue paper. I bought the roll of paper because a) it was cheap and b) meant i didn't have to stick pieces of paper together to get the lenght of the garter. I bought the tissue paper as i thought i would be easy to ruffle and also easy to distinguish between the 2 for the tailors. So i set about prototyping what i wanted. 1 ruffle 2 ruffle 3 ruffle?? how long the ruffles, the distance between them, the height of them, the ratio to them and the garter. the size of the garter on the leg, all these details I worked out in an afternoon spent playing about. The ruffles i decided on was shown in the very first picture. Next I had to deiced on the perspex. I printed out copies of the design - read the chandelier perspex blog - and played with sticking 1 and 2 on the paper prototype and varying the size. this was obviously restricted by the battery and switch and its relationship to the garter. So i set off with my model, drawing and materials. handed it in on a Friday, got it back on the Wednesday and only £13.50 down -AMAZING!! the silk is interfaced with 2 layers of silk satin organza that was stiffened to give it shape. I also got a white one made the week later after ordering up some silk. I was stunned by the white one. Here's some pics

the wee circle bit is for the perspex to sit on.

Lingerie Inspiration

2009-04-13T11:57:00.000+01:00

So with the idea of redesigning the product to make it look more beautiful, I have been looking for some inspiration.

I can't remember where these top two garters are from but they were the best out of a large selection. A BIG problem I have with these garters is that they look cheap. I don't know if it is the lace, photography or the polyester vibe I'm getting. Anyway i like the shape of these garters, with the fringe at the bottom bigger than the top. I quite like the black one at the bottom.

I'm liking this garter from Agent Provocateur, its simple and different. Maybe a bit too simple for my project.

And I'm loving these from Strumpet and Pink

I love these ruffles. I think I'm going to play with and go down this route.

Feed back

2009-04-10T15:11:00.001+01:00

OK FEEDBACK!!!

I GOT A B2!!!!

even though its just provisional it means that actually like it! I spoke to Jon to get this and he pointed out that if i don't hand in a finished product i will fail but there is scope for improvement. I need to make it more detailed. But all the things that didn't go my way were "easily" fixable.

Design (in general) - B
Execution - C (I think I was pretty lucky)
Details - C
Materials - B
Interaction - A (AMAZING!!!!!)

comments:

Well done - this is the best so far with your making - and commendable given where you were at PLAY. But this is far from finished. the lace (i think he meant to say silk) requires a better finish (perhaps by a professional) (I had decided on getting it made) the details need working out - maybe more delicate? it needs to work - how will it be switched on/off?

A general comment is that it is currently not beautiful enough - a very fair one I would say

Consider the light - you used cold (why?) do you have a cold light and a warm light?

Tips for Talk:

Be clear who it is for - it is not for everyone. Find the perfect venue for a photo shoot. Make sure your photos have a range of skin tones - don't make it exclusively for white middle class people!!

So all in all a fair feedback i have soooo much work to do.

Make Crit

2009-04-10T15:10:00.002+01:00

Just before our Easter "break" we had our MAKE stage crit. here we had to show a working model. this is as far i had got on my very new idea but it showed the working and principles of:

1. integrating the silk, perspex and L.E.Ds
2. my lights worked
3. you could tie around the leg.

The crit went OK but what I discovered was that this design - which i knew before anyone told me - looked very amateur. I felt it looked like a home economics project and not the high end deisgn I was going for. Also I felt the perspex was just sort of "stuck" on the silk and my sewing skills were not the best. Well at least i had the Easter Hols to fix it. the presentation went ok , I was hugely nervous for the feed back

Materials - perspex

2009-04-10T15:07:00.034+01:00

OK so for my battery holder and switch I'm making perspex housing in a jewellery style. this is 1st attempt

these were the styles I was going to have as my perspex. this was the stage I had gotten to before the make crit. These styles were based on antique jewellery. the bottom row of the image above shows the other pieces that make up the rest of the brooch.

I needed to have room for a switch and battery - read the post entitled batteries - and i wanted my screws to sit flush with the outer layer of perspex so rastered the red circles accordingly.

Materials - silk

2009-04-10T15:07:00.027+01:00

SILK, a traditionally luxurious and beautiful material, perfect for my product. Who knew there were so many types of silk!!!! I suppose its like paper, you just think there is one type until you start investigating. I had a silk dress and wanted the exact same type of silk as it. all I could find was dupion, silk mixes, habotai and endless more, but reading descriptions and trying to decide on pictures on the Internet was hopeless along with the fact there are no silk shops in Dundee. It is impossible to pick the right material if you a) don't know what it is called and b) do not have any samples of it. then after about 2 days of looking for silk stockists and typing in all sorts into Google to get some samples, I realised that I go to an art and design school that has a textiles department. OH MY GOD. The obvious thing was to go to the textiles department and ask them!!! a lesson for next time and for everybody else using new materials...ASK SOMEONE!! Armed with my silk dress and the name of the textile technician I asked him and within twenty minuets had a stockist and requested free samples of silk. I am using 100% black silk satin from Whaleys - Bradford. and silk satin organza for interfacing. Thank you Nori from textiles.

Light Emitting Diodes

2009-04-10T15:07:00.025+01:00

These are the lights I am using for my project. They are surface mount L.E.Ds size 0603 ,1.2 x 0.8 mm . This blog is about the process I have undergone getting them the way I wanted. I had a lot of trouble working with them before i devised the method I am showing you. Because of the voltage I am using I also need resistors and to keep everything super small I am using surface mount resistors size 0402 which are 1 x 0.5 mm. I have taken photos against a 1 pence piece and and a pin to show how small the compentes are. I want to use the L.E.Ds in a straight line with the resistors at 90 degrees to the L.E.Ds to create the smallest possible lights. A problem with working with micro components is the wire used to join them, conventional electrical wire is thick in comparison to the components. You can buy conductive thread over the Internet, it is quite expensive and takes a while to arrive. I found spun metal embroidery thread, which is the same thickness as ordinary sewing thread, and tested it for its conductivity. It conducts for up to 6v which is exactly what i need, however it has a tendency for the metallic coating to come apart on very long lengths, so i am using a mixture of metal jewellery wire and metal embroidery thread. Ok so here is my method of putting together my lights. I do 5 LEDs at a time, it makes it easier.

1) I had to laser cut a jig from a piece of wood. I cut dents into the wood on the laser cutter the size of the LEDs at the distance I wanted them. The LEDs are spaced at every 5mm. Then using tweezers and the end of a pin I place the LEDs face down in the right polarity and tape down the positive side. You can tell the polarity by the arrows on the back of the LEDs the point is the negative side. 2) I tape the tread down in position over the negative side of the LEDs and solder. 3) I cover the soldered negative side with tape to keep the LEDs in place and remove the tape of the positive side. Here comes the tricky bit. the resistors are placed on making tape so the don't move and are easier to pick up.Then I pick them up with the very tip of tweezers, with my left hand. I move the bottom of the resistors so they sit right angled to the tweezers. I move the resistor, still in the tweezers, so the positive side of the led and the bottom of the resistor are touching at right angles. With my right hand I move the soldering iron, with a tiny bit of solder on the very tip, towards the joint and solder. the solder takes about half a second. any longer and the solder on the other side of the LED heats up and that solder is broken. I do this with each LED and end up - 4) Now i have to hold the wire with he tweezers in my left and and very quickly solder it to the top of the LEDs with my right hand. this step needs to be done super quickly so the resistors do not come away from the LEDs. at this stage there is always one resistor that needs to be re soldered but in groups of 5 its not that bad. This is what it looks like before they are glued- After a set of 5 I glue them with 5 minute setting epxoy resin which is a strong 2 part glue what is clear. I apply it to the LEDs with the end of a pin to make little bulbs, the LEDs and resistors and encased in a ball of epxoy. This ensures that the solders do not break when the next set of 5 is made. The epoxy sets in an hour so I leave about an hour and a half between sets.I have to hand the LEDs between 2 pieces of wood so i can cover them with epoxy and not stick them to anything. These are the lights i have used in my prototype, out of 50, 48 worked so I must make sure i test that the LEDs work before I glue them. All the soldering was done by myself without any other help, it is a one person job and also I don't use any help to see the components like magnifying glasses. 5 is defiantly the optimum number to do at any one time, any more and solders start to break, any less and it takes too long. after 5 my eyes get tired so a rest is good. A set of 5 takes about 20 - 30 minutes. I hope you like the lights, next step is using warm white LEDs as these are ultra bright white. I had to buy the warm whites from Germany.

User experiance and Scenarios

2009-04-10T15:06:00.012+01:00

People always ask with a product, who is it for, how would they use it. well next blog i will explain who, but for now the HOW. I have mapped out the user experience of my product to ensure that every stage of the experience is perfect. I have staged the process and written down the areas that need to be addressed in them.

click on the images to get a better view.

I have also mapped out scenarios for my product. these are just 2 for now but i will be adding and people will also have their own uses for the product. I drew them out but forgot to put colour for the light. I'll do that at a later date.

Who What Why?

2009-04-10T15:06:00.011+01:00

to justify the existence of our products we had to come up with who the product is for, why it is in existence and what it is. so for elle lumine:

Who: For women who want to feel beautiful, sexy and confident.

Why: So women can see themselves in a new light and love their bodies more.

What: A sophisticated and opulent garter that illuminates the beauty of your leg.

PRESS RELEASE (working but pretty much there)

elle lumine is an indulgent new garter that illuminates and intensifies you beautiful legs to tease out the elegant and confident you. A seductive adornment to see your legs in a new light.

Insipration

2009-04-10T15:05:00.008+01:00

So after my brain wave i spoke to Dean ( graduate 2007) and he gave me some great advise about its form, it should be simple but beautiful and showed me these great designers to look at.

Ayah Bder with her wearable technology and her pants of sexual liberation named Teta Haniya's Secrets. Dean had met Ayah and thought her work would be a good reference for fashion technology, it is.

And Moritz Waldmeyer for all the amazing things he does with L.E.Ds he has also work with my favourite Hussein Chalayan. A particular example is Airborn where 1500 L.E.Ds are embedded into fabric. or the amazing Readings where the dresses are lasers.

Above:Airborn

Below:Readings

Thinking about my project and user testing, I am going to contact both Mr Waldemeyer and Mr Chalayanto see if they want to give a review of my product along with the amazing Ayah Bdeir

Change of Direction

2009-04-10T14:55:00.005+01:00

Ok so I haven't updated my blog in ages. I just forgot about it a bit but now its Good Friday (yes i really do mean ages) I'm having a bit more of a relaxing day work wise so now is the time over the weekend to update you on the goings on! My project is still about legs and light but it has moved away from shoes. I felt like i was flogging a dead horse and did not know how to fix things. I had completely moved away from shoes on to cuffs and for about a week i was wondering what to make this cuffs out off, what shape, how to fasten them all these niggling details and it was really really getting to me. so in a moment of high stress i had a bit of a brainwave and elle lumine was conceptualised.

So elle lumine started as a ribbon that you tie round the leg, any part that lights up the leg providing the user with beauty, seduction and confidence. The name came later as you will see in my blog about it but the values that i have been trying to push throughout my process have remained the same. LEGS & LIGHT, just a different method of delivery.

The 49 shoes changed to an illuminating garter, and a much better project.

batteries

2009-04-09T04:21:00.002+01:00

GOOD LORD!!

I have been trying to figure out what kind of batteries to use for my product and have just spent the best part of 2 days trying to figure out and searching trough the Internet at some advise. I had to work this out as i could not go ahead and design my perspex with out the dimensions. Design specifications:

As long life for the smallest amount of space.

I had no idea how you worked out what the battery life is so i trolled through the Internet and found it it was measured in capacitance. the battery i had bought because it was so thin had a 76 mAH life span which is nothing. i have roughly 50 L.E.Ds in each garter all flowing at 20mA meaning each need 20mAH from a battery to work for 1 hour. I found this calculator and put in the values 20 x 50 = 1000 and 500mAH which means a battery of 500mAH would power my L.E.Ds for about 30 mins. i looked at phone batteries, camera batteries but they were all too big. I found these on R.S. being the smallest with the biggest capacitance. I'm putting 2 together to make 6 volts at with 1000mAH at 6.4 mm. not too bad! which should make my L.E.Ds last roughly an hour. WOOOO HOOOO!!

Sketches and Prototyping

2009-02-22T21:10:00.002Z

At this point in my design process I am looking into the form of my objects. I started sketching as you can see. These are just a few of the forms I explored, other sketches were poor or the shapes outlandish but reiterating the form and exploring all the possibilities was essential. Dean (ex-student and kinda teacher) took us for a work shop on prototyping. so i took my favourite ideas from the sketching and started to turn them into cardboard forms. The progress is shown from left to right the left one being about the 3rd form I explored. I liked it and it linked into the prototyping with the lights in an earlier blog so i started to develop it. In the middle picture I wanted to incorporate more of the visual language of a shoe and so it looks more shoe like and less "what
is it?". I loved the aesthetics of the collar and speaking to Pete about what material to make the shoe from he suggested a wire frame and fabric stretched like the BMW cloth concept car shown below. The picture on the right shows the first attempt at this fabric over wire concept. this fabric had no stretch and so was quite hard to maneuver and shape.
So after taking a pair of tights and stretching them over another wire frame I came up with the basic final form of the ankle shining shoe with a few minor adjustments mainly to do with the curve of the collar. the collar is on the inside of the foot sweeping round to the outside and exposing and illuminating the ankle. I have ordered samples of different types of stretch fabrics which hopefully will come soon. I love the organic shape of the shoe.

Inspiration and Design Style

2009-02-22T21:05:00.000Z

MAKE is about making our objects. I have been looking into the style and aesthetic of my shoes and have got a mood board to show my design direction and some pictures of inspiration.

What is it?

2009-02-22T19:51:00.001Z

So after much deliberation, chat and a haze of a project I have decided what I am going to show in May. I won't bore you with the ins and outs of the process but basically for the last couple of weeks it has been a whirlpool of indecisive and confusing thoughts and activities. So main concepts

1. LEGS. the project is about showing off "taking pride and pleasure" from the leg. I'm sticking to women's legs and the calf and ankle sections.

2. LIGHTS. the showing off is done through illuminating the calf and ankle.

3. SHOES/COLLARS. The lights are housed in shoes. I am making 2 pairs one for the ankle and one for the calf. There are also going to be a few sets of collars/cuffs to go round the foot to illuminate the ankle.

So that's it shoes and collars that illuminate ladies legs to allow her to take pride and pleasure in from this part of her body!!!!!!!!!!

The results are in

2009-02-19T20:58:00.002Z

OK so the results of the survey are in. I am showing the questions and the most relevant answers.

What is the favourite part of your legs? Why?

My ankle - not fat and always look good

The hair because it's well manly

Below the knee

Calves - cause they are thin and nicely Muscled

What part of your legs would you like to show off more?

Below the knee

Calves

What part of your legs do you want to hide?

Thighs

The survey was completed by 11 people ages between 16 and 65 with 2 males and 9 females taking part.

I have decided to focus on the ankles and calf muscle for my project.

Survey

2009-02-03T22:12:00.002Z

Please take for some rapid research I'm conducting

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=1h5xkavvqtcfcjt542474

Plan for MAKE stage

2009-02-02T22:32:00.001Z

Here's my plan for the next 9 weeks. I've got tutorials tomorrow so some detail will be changed but this is basically what I'm doing.

Shoes for play

2009-01-25T16:06:00.007Z

For my shoes for the play hand in on Friday I decided to do a pair that lit up the ankels of the wearer to show them off. Here is how its going so far. I've bought some surface mount leds and they are absoulutely tiny, I wanted them small but god they are small. Anyway while waiting for them to arrive i played around with normal l.e.ds to get to positioning of them right. I had been thinking of ways to mount the l.e.d.s and I saw these and loved the collar on them.

I played around and here are the results
I think it looks quite cool but one problem of having a collar is that the heal is acutally hidden from the sides and back which, for the shoe for the play hand in, I don't want. The surface mount l.e.ds are also white so a different effect. Next week is all about the making this work and look good. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I don't know how much sleep i'll get next week.

Direction for Play

2009-01-25T15:51:00.003Z

On Tuesday the 20th of Jan, I had my first tutorial with Jon of the new year. As the Play hand in is on the 30th i was kinda stuck and worried about it. Speaking to Jon gave me hope for Friday. As you may remember one of the objectives was to show wearable technology. This is also what Jon said to me on Tuesday. For my working prototype I am wearing a pair of shoes that have integrated technology to the presentations.

A pair of shoes that show a working version of the pride and pleasure theme.

This is my mission for Friday. This is going to be my working prototype. I also have to hand in a plan for make and this blog.

As for the other objectives Jon set me for play. I feel the story behind the shoes is quite concrete and Jon also liked the pride and pleasure statement. The relationship between Find and Play is quite strong to me but I'm going to post the evidence up for the hand in. Expect quite alot of blogs to go up over the next week. wish me luck

More thinking and Theory

2009-01-25T15:21:00.003Z

so on the post Social context,theory and story post Kerry (my classmate) left this comment:

"hey so will the aesthetics of the shoes represent a pleasure that you can feel from shoes? is that what you mean, like warmth, comfort? or are you trying to recreate shoes that do these things for you and not look at the aesthetics?

is this what you mean?"

Good question. What I am trying to do is create a collection of shoes that allow the user to take pride and pleasure in their feet. Aesthetics is going to play a major role in this as this is a design course but also because some of the shoe's functions will be displayed through their form.

To try and clarify, for some of the shoes the way they look, e.g. no toes, will be the function as it will allow the wearer to just have their toes touching the ground creating a pleasurable experience. Where as others will have l.e.d.s to light up the foot and draw attention to the foot as their function. Does this make sense? please tell me if it doesn't so I can work on the clarification of my project.

Social context, Thory and Story 2

2009-01-20T12:16:00.006Z

To clarify to you and me, especially as part of my hand in and essence on my project.

Mission Statement

A collection of shoes that allows the user to take pride and pleasure in their feet.

Social Context

From my research in FIND, people adore being barefoot, do not get to be bare foot as often as they like. evidence of this will be posted asap.

Influence

I want people to enjoy their feet more and not to forget about them.

Social context, Theory and Story

2009-01-20T11:52:00.004Z

This is a really long post but bear with me, its a changing point in the project!

One of the objectives i have to meet for the Play stage of this project is to work on the story. Apart from proving I can make shoes I personally think this is one of the most important aspects of the project. The story comprises of the thinking and social context of the project. Why am I doing what I am doing?

Well I've been working on my story. I've been thinking and yesterday I did some free writing where i just wrote for 5 minuets on a topic from my project to try and get the momentum. I wrote about what i wanted to achieve and the aesthetic. This worked well in getting my mind flowing but was mostly just gibberish!

Today I went back to the story. I feel I need to get the story and theme of the project right before i can actually start designing and clarify the end result as this will influence the form and characteristics of my project. Here's the start of today's thinking:

-clogs of the future
-plastic fantastic
-recycled technology
-pretty cakes
-wooden wonders
-new wood
-industrial wasteland
-hard wood
-pain and pleasure

When I got to here I was defiantly struggling with my thinking. Then I came across designer and Illustrator Jasper Goodall

more themes arose like

-fantasy and reality
- dreams
-tomorrows shoes
-the future of feet

Then I realised that I have been working irrationally. I was trying to come up with a theme when i didn't even know what i wanted to represent, what influence i wanted to make.

Thinking back to my FIND stage, what was it i was looking at? What was the rational behind my FIND?

"So many people experience joy from their feet...How can you recreate and improve pleasure whilst reducing pain?"

I have therefore decided to go back to FEET instead of concentrating on SHOES. Don't get me wrong I'm still going to make shoes but they are going to concentrate on pleasures from the feet instead of "what new things can i so with shoes"

More Influence

2009-01-19T10:56:00.002Z

Bernadette Deddens has designed a few shoes and accessories.

Hussein Chalayan

2009-01-19T10:29:00.002Z

I love his work!!

http://husseinchalayan.com/#/art_projects.2000_afterwords/

Inspiration

2009-01-07T14:42:00.011Z

I love these designers. I am taking inspiration from them. "Gwendolyn Husken s amazing Medic Esthetic footwear project. Gwendolyn is a student at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and her project toys with the taboos of physical deformities in our society - creating some very lovely shoes made out from medical supplies, such as synthetic plaster, bandages, stainless steel and band-aids." I'm thinking of creating an exhibition like this in the way that there is a theme and unusual materials. These striking shoes are from Marloes ten Bhomer " Critically acclaimed designer Marloes ten Bhömer produces shoes that are both provocative and otherworldly. Her work fuses artistic and technological experiment in order to discover shoes anew." And also inspired hugely by Hussein Chalayan with his work shown below

What I like is the innovative use of material and the questioning of form. I also am in love with high fashion designers John Galliano, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, John Paul Gautier, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent and Vivienne Westwood. Hopefully you can see the direction I am going with my shoes now.

Play Crit

2009-01-07T12:43:00.000Z

So the play crit went well. Here's my feed back from Jon:
Hi Jackie

Some feedback on Friday's PLAY crit

Great work so far- and you currently sit on the B/C threshold, with a clear potential for an A if you successfully explore the following:

PLAY with the technology to show working shoes that are WEARABLE.

It is important that you deliver a wearable and therefore usable pair of shoes that is to degree show quality. This will demonstrate
the viability of your work. This can be a simple solution - e.g. a sports radio in a shoe, the dynamo flashlights in a shoe (but more
finessed that Friday's presentation) - or it could be a mechanical solution such as the changeable heel.

PLAY with making shoes - this can be acheive by either you making a shoe or by contracting a shoe maker to do this for you.

PLAY with the story behind the shoes - is it 49 random shoes or is their the potential for a clear narrative - e.g. shoes found from the future...shoes from fairy tales, shoes from an undiscovered 2nd world war lab in Estonia...

Bring out the relationship between the FIND and the PLAY stages.

Great work, the focus needs to be more on the finish at this stage (you've achieved a lot, just show us the viability of the finish)

I'll be back on the 12th Jan

Have a great holiday

Jon

So the bullet points are what i will be working on for the next couple of weeks and also looking for some infulence.

Update and Happy New Year

2009-01-07T11:40:00.014Z

Ok so I'm back. hope you had a good new year cause I did. The project - latest news was Monday the 15th of December. Lots to catch up on. firstly Jon (my tutor) and i discussed my project on the Tuesday ahead of our crit on the 19th of December. We all were given wee challenges to see what we came up with. my challenge was to show that i could integrate technology into a shoe and make it look good. I decided to make a light up shoe. Here's the process.

firstly i had to hollow out the heal of a shoe to put the electronics in. this was a lot harder than it seemed. i went down to the workshop to talk to Roddy (one of the technicians) and he helped me a lot. the problems we encountered were we couldn't drill right through we had to get all the meal out and there was quite a bit. staples and nails holding the shoe to the sole. We had to use Roddy's man power to remove these and my scalpel wheedling techniques then we could drill a hole.
But this meant we cut the leather making a hole. This was just fixed with contact glue at the end. so once the inners of the heal were carved out i made a wee circuit to go into the space that just lit up 6 white surface mount LEDs at once and stuck it all together.
Here's the result. the light shines through the holes in the brogue shoes. This is the stage i was at before the Crit.

Creating Influence

2008-12-15T21:16:00.006Z

People have been asking me what the need is behind my project. And i answer our project is firstly about creating influences. Some of my shoes have very good needs but first and fore most influence. so what influence do i want to make?

- Placebo/wonder/excitement/ imagination - with my films i want people to believe a sort of placebo effect that these things could happen. they can fly with rocket boots and shoes can move on their own. i want to influence their imagination.

- Use - with my electronic shoes i want people to see that shoes are more than fashion and protection. i want people to see more function and produce more interaction with their shoes and see that function and use don't have to come in the form of ipods.

I also feel that shoes as a topic is seen by most people as a bit superficial with no deeper meaning. I want this to change.

I think in the breadth of my project and seeing what can be done with shoes will be a very good influence. we have had shoes since the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks, yet their function has gone unchanged with only variety in their form, which is still essential the same. At this defining moment, change has come to shoes!!

Detachable Heals

2008-12-14T22:40:00.004Z

I wanted to make a universal heal that you could attach different heals to to adjust the height and style of your shoes - reducing material use and cost of shoes. So i made 10 wooden heals all the same and then cut and latched them to demonstrate the concept. I have also made 007 killer heals that release ball bearings for enemies to slip on.

hand made shoes

2008-12-14T22:12:00.005Z

I haven't spoken to any shoe makers yet but just wait and I will. anyway i wanted to see if i could make some shoes out of intuition and observation. So my boyfriend had to lend me his feet. I bought some stiffish cotton and just sort of cut it up and made it fit round his foot and held it in place with masking tape. But then i made it into a pattern of 3 parts: 2 heal parts and the over the toe area. Glued it all together and stapled it to an insole. did this for both feet - just reflected the pattern. then i added a tongue and some laces and voila a very rough pair of shoes, but a pair of shoes none the less.

Direction arrows

2008-12-14T21:14:00.004Z

one of the ideas was to download maps on to your shoes and direction arrows on your shoes guide you the route. for people who get lost easily or find map reading hard- even on an i phone. i was suppose to be filming a proper working video but the weather man told me it was going to rain and i don't want my newly made electronics being ruined, needless to say it didn't really rain but i had left all my electronics on my desk. anyway here's the process of making the lights from some leds.

Walking a 1/4 mile in another girls boots

2008-12-14T20:15:00.005Z

One of my ideas was to have cameras in shoes that took pictures automatically so you and other people could see your world in different ways with out any effort. My class mate Andy Craig was playing around with cat cams which are micro cameras. anyway not wanting to spend money on them as i wasn't sure if this was even a good idea, i made my own un-integrated camera boots. i had 4 disposable cameras left over from my probes in the play stage so strapped (with wire so i could angle them) them to my boots and set out to take a picture every 10 steps. There were two cameras on each leg, one on the front and one on the side. I took my first photos and then took one step and the cameras all fell out of their holder things I had devised, not good. so then I just held them win position where they would have been strapped for the photos. Also my 10 steps quickly became every 1 minute as 10 steps is not far and would not have much variety in my photos making not much point in the experiment. Using disposable cameras and holding them at my legs (you can see my shadow of me taking the pictures in some frames) meant i had no idea what i was taking photos of and no idea if they were going to be any good. i was pleasantly surprised. Anyway i got them developed and here is the wee video. there's music to. Enjoy!

Search light shoes

2008-12-14T19:52:00.006Z

These shoes are designed to light up when the user snaps their heals together (ditto Dorothy wizard of oz). there are 2 settings: a constant light or flashing on only when heals are clicked. their use is for children to be easily and quickly seen when lost out and about. these shoes were made by the integration and modification of dynamo powered torches into a simple pair of pumps. For the shoes ( there are 2 I'll pop a video of them working together up this week) to be completely wearable the electronics need to be smaller and integrated better but a quick prototype to shoe the concept works. below is a picture of how bright the light is and a video of them flashing.
thanks

Proving PLAY!!

2008-12-10T23:00:00.000Z

OK so i have heaps of blogs to post...just trying to find the right time, I've got a spare bit of time now but no photos so this is just a general blog about play.

due to the unconventional nature of my project, I'm playing around with heaps of different things. With the help of Pete (one of my tutors) i have clarified what i am going to make for my prototypes of my 30 or so shoes of the moment. So this is what i want to prove i can do in the very little time that remains of play.

Making bespoke electronics
Integrating (roughly) bespoke and pre made electronics into shoes
making shoes and shoe parts such as heals
making both concept and experience prototype videos

The crit is on the 19th of December, 9 days away and i don't know how much sleep I'll get. But then after is holidays and Christmas where i can eat, drink and be merry so for the next 9 days i don't mind working hard. There is a lot to do but I'm ready for it, fingers crossed!!

Wine video and drawing

2008-12-03T23:02:00.000Z

Ok so I made a video of the wine making shoes in action. also here's the first of my drawings for what i hope they will look like. I want all my shoes to be really stylish and fabulous which i hope they are but these are all open to change. I want them to be edgy.

Rocket Boots

2008-12-02T21:36:00.000Z

My rocket boots. A fantasy pair of shoes...or are they? here are some pictures of them on people and in action. Enjoy

Wine making shoes

2008-12-02T21:05:00.000Z

Today I finished my prototype of my wine making shoes. There is also a video of me crushing the grapes which i will upload later. Here we go...
This first image is of me cutting the grapes so they could fit into the capri sun bottle. At this stage of my project my prototypes are quick and rough...very rough.
These are of the shoe mechanics. stand on the capri sun which contains the grapes and walk about. The grape juice flows up the tubing as shown below.
So my carpi sun containers were about 1/4 full and i walked for about 2 minutes and this is the result
Impressive I know. But basic proving of the principle. So maybe instead of wine they could be smoothie makers or soup blenders or even heaters...hum maybe too far. Jon my tutor suggested the name "sole food" which I quite like. Maybe I'll do a range of sole food shoes.

Play

2008-12-01T22:38:00.000Z

So far in the play section (due for critque in 3 weeks) I have made

rocket boots and a video of them working which i will up load very shortly.
A prototype of wine making/grape crushing shoes
the start or the mechanical fingers for monkey climbing shoes.
tested and rejected the etch a sketch customisable shoes.
ordered a heap of stuff and deliberating what to do with them

Goal for end of week: Have all 49 shoes figured out

23 of the 49

2008-11-30T23:04:00.000Z

A list of 23 of the 49. I've just titled them as a description and a one line function.

Hollywood search lights for lost children
Parent child finding
SOS signals
Hot and cold directional
Monkey claw for climbing
Webbed toe for better swimming
Partial sole shoe for hidden bare foot walking
Sole-less shoe for extreme hidden bare foot walking
Interchangeable high heals
Light up pavement for portable disco floor
Children connecting
Twisties for unlimited spinning
Vibrating reflexology for the ultimate foot fetish
Etch a sketch customisable shoes
Interchangeable sections of shoes
Secret spy cam
Vibrating shoes to show which direction to go
Light up arrows on shoes to show which way to go
007 killer release heals
forced attraction shoes
Wheat grinding shoes
Wine making/ grape crushing shoes
Beautiful yet comfortable heals

I should hopeful get my Manolo Blahnik style sketches of all the shoes up by the end of the week.

the 49 shoes

2008-11-30T22:43:00.000Z

After deliberating over my two ideas, I have decided to make an array of conceptual but working - to an extent- shoes apealing to peoples' wants, needs and desires. They are going to be quite practical but very avant garde or falmboyant maybe a more accruate description and yep there's going to be 49 of them. I've choosen 49 because a) it sounds like a nice title b) it is a manageble number of shoes to concive and produce. I was going to go for 99 but in this time frame and given my find sections' findings i'm thinking 49 is a good number.

Ideas and Play

2008-11-26T22:11:00.000Z

On the 11th on November some big important people came to see us and discuss our work. This was the "Ideas Day". With their breadth and depth of knowledge they were exceedingly helpful. We post- it noted 20 of our best ideas and the important people drew/scribbled/etched comments on them. This was also the start of our Play section.

From this insightful event I decided to go down on of two routes: throwing things into trees or over power lines to create and add to the environment or a gallery of conceptual shoes with various functions to fulfill certain needs and desires. Below are images of the ideas.

Rational

2008-11-20T21:49:00.000Z

We had to produce a rational and the thinking behind our subject area. Here's mineWalking bare foot in the sand excites me. It is sensational. And shoes, I adore shoes. The way they look, the way they make me feel and the messages they send to other people. This I find fascinating.

Bare feet is an exploration into the most spectacular and most forgotten part of the body:the feet. We use our feet everyday, they take the physical burden of our bodies and the pressures of our everyday lives.

So many people experience joy from their feet, whether it's walking bare foot on wet grass, running a marathon or exploring a new city. Being on your feet can be an exciting time. For others walking or using their feet is a nightmare. Sores, pains and cramp alone can render anyone immobile and reluctant to move. How can you recreate and improve pleasure whilst reducing pain? can our feet be used in innovative and unconventional ways?

Inspiration

2008-10-19T21:20:00.000+01:00

I love this photo. I don’t know what to do with it yet but I love it. I wish I could say I took it or was even present when it took place, but alas it’s from my good friend Flickr.com. I hope I get hundreds ideas from this photo & other ones I have discovered, but at the moment all I know is I love it and want you to see it.

100 ideas in 3 weeks

2008-10-14T21:17:00.001+01:00

I missed writing up my blog last week and I wish I hadn’t. It seems that in the last week my motivation had dwindled and my project progression advancing at a slow snail pace. So I have vowed never to miss a Tuesday blog! I find writing the blog helps me clear my head about the project as I have to convey it to other people. But anyway enough rambling.

It is 3 weeks until our first hand in of 100 ideas with insights worth 15% of the module mark. 15%!!! So far I have roughly, very roughly have 5 or there about. So where are the other 95 to come from? My research. Hum my research.

As it stands my research is:

Probes – get them back on Thursday

Books – so many books

Film – just for kicks & a bit of puss in boots

Emails

Blogs

Observations

Flickr – I now adore flickr

Below are some items from my probes

What I am really interested in is the emotions we get from bare feet, shoes & movement & possibly trying to recreate these experiences. Had a bit of a chat with Jasmine, Eva & Imran today, juggling about some ideas. It was defiantly a help. But 100 ideas? 100 great ideas? It is feeling a bit daunting. I hope to have a disco ball of ideas not just a light bulb.

The powers of the internet

2008-10-01T21:15:00.000+01:00

Wow I’ve had my Gum Tree adverts up for less than 24 hours andalready I’ve had a multitude of willing guinea pigs (or people interested in shoes etc) reply. Keep up the good work, the more the merrier! Some of my probes are defiantly going to be sent by email – saving the environment, cheaper costs, hopefully a quicker response – I just hope they will be as insightful as my physical probes should be.

Stimulating Research

2008-09-30T21:14:00.000+01:00

A picture of foot reflexology, aren’t feet interesting?

Today we had a lecture on “cultural probes” as a research method. Basically little activities to engage with people to try and get some kind of valuable research for a project. At first I was skeptical as my probes last year gave little value but after taking to Jayne Wallace (the lecturer) and Pete Thomas (one of my tutors) I’ve come up with what I hope will be fun, useful activities. My probes are geared to emotion & sensations you can get from bare feet or the movement of your feet. The only problem I’m finding is finding people from my exploration groups to contact and speak to. However I did just post a bunch of ads on Gumtree so if you’re reading this having seen my ad & followed the link, PLEASE HELP! I am going to make my probes electronically accessible so no one has to give out home addresses if they don’t want to as probes are physical objects. I am also going down to visit the Dundee road runners this Thursday and try and recruit some of their members. I’ve contacted the uni dance society and continuing to search the internet for forums and discussion groups on shoes. I’m quite enjoying this project. I’ve added “Work extremely hard” to my personal “to do” list.

wish me luck!

Intro

2008-09-27T21:11:00.000+01:00

This is my online diary & dumping ground for my 4th year project for my BSc in Innovative Product Design. We have been given free reign to decide what our project topic is and the direction we want to take it. Initially I was excited, but then deciding on a topic I am passionate about, that would make an excellent project and that would keep me occupied for the year was hard and my topic is still vague.

"Bare Feet" is a title under construction (and will probably change when I next speak to my tutor) and basically a broad and hopefully witty way of saying I am looking at feet and all related areas. The main related areas I want to investigate are: Movement, Culture & Personal.

Movement

I want to look at the different ways we move our feet to get around and enjoy our selves. I’m going to speak to Dancers (professional & the rest of us), Runners and other sports people and walkers. I want to look at the physical and emotional sides of movement.

Culture

Here I am going to explore the past & present fascination with footwear. I have done quite a bit of reading on this already and the connotations and symbolism of footwear are extraordinary! I will hopefully speak to some bespoke shoe makers (including shoe customisation- especially trainers), shoe historians and shoe fan clubs.

Personal

In this area I specifically want to explore the emotional effects shoes and movement on our lives and feelings. I will incorporate this area into the other two but will also be exploring it in a purely emotional level. I hope to speak to shoe fanatics & people with shoe fetishes to see what it about shoes that turns them on? Why do you feel amazing in a certain pair of shoes? Why do you feel like you can’t stop dancing even if your feet are sore?

All this well and dandy the project is split up into 4 areas: Find; Play; Make; Talk. Find is our research stage, Play our prototyping stage, Make the making of the final piece and talk a 20 minute presentation of our work. Ahh scary things.