Category: Experimenting

Creative experiments

  • a sky blue ceramic cyanotype of a stem of rue, sitting on top of filter paper that's been made into a cyanotype using the same plant, but the paper is dark to light blue

    Ceramic Experiments

    I’ve been taking a ceramics class at my local park district, and after months of waiting, I finally got my bisque fired pieces back yesterday. So I made one of them into a cyanotype and another into a chromatogram. Cyanotype Ceramics When making cyanotypes on filter paper, I heavily dilute the chemicals. That’s because the…

    Mari

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  • Cyanotype x Chromatogram Progress

    Last year, I worked out how to combine cyanotypes with soil chromatography. The deep browns and vibrant blues mix so well together, like the earth, and the water, and the sky. There is so much I want to develop with these combined processes. It’s my main goal for experimentation this year- finding different ways to…

    Mari

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  • Pothi Books for Chromatograms

    For just over two years, I’ve worked to bring soil chromatography from a lesser known soil science test used to make small scale prints to a more expansive creative technique. For every experiment and art print I made, I made a corresponding print using standard soil chromatography protocols.  Each of these prints is a way…

    Mari

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  • cyanotype of dried chive blossoms, with random areas of it toned with silver nitrate

    A New Method For Bleaching and Toning Cyanotypes

    Silver nitrate allows you to bleach and tone cyanotypes in one step, with one chemical, and without needing to wash the print after applying the silver nitrate solution.

    Mari

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  • deli sandwich cut in half seen in elevation

    Vegan Chicken Experiments

    A few months ago, I started trying to make vegan deli meat. The goal was to make vegan, gluten free, soy free meat for sandwiches because I haven’t been able to find a substitute that accommodates all of my food allergies and intolerances.

    Mari

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  • screenshot of the Designing with Waste home page. Oversized text says, "Designing with Waste Means..." Below that are three clickable tiles titled "recycling", "learning", and "sharing"

    Designing With Waste, MDes Thesis pt 3

    DesigningWithWaste.com grew out of frustrations with seeing awesome experimental design projects never go beyond a classroom because of a lack of infrastructure. Making matters worse, students often have to reinvent the wheel when they have an experimental design project since the industrial design community lacks a collaborative hub where people can improve upon each others’…

    Mari

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  • white models on a white background, from left to right: speaker, drawer pull, speaker, lamp, chess piece, speaker, door handle

    The Cai Modeling Materials, MDes Thesis pt. 1

    For my industrial design masters thesis at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I developed plastic-free modeling materials. Cai Board can serve as a replacement for extruded polystyrene foam. Cai Clay is an air-drying clay that is an alternative to plastic-based clays.

    Mari

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  • gif of a ring light being held up by a human arm. Three frames in the gif show a soft carbon fiber switch hanging loose as a string and a ball, with the switch about to be connected, and with the switch connected and the light shining

    Carbon Fiber Experiments

    Carbon fiber is conductive, but since it’s not as efficient as copper wiring, it’s not often used for its conductive properties. I discovered that its inefficiency means that you can hook up LED diodes to it without the need for resistors. 

    Mari

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