SEMESTER 2 – GENERIC SKILLS
MATERIALS
FACILITATOR
– NARENDRA RAGHUNATHAN
OVERVIEW & REFLECTION
The journey through out this course has been thought
provoking and stimulating with a series of ups and downs. Achieving success was
always followed by failures. However, that did not affect our motivation or
team spirit.
Initially the notions of ‘joinery,’ ‘form,’ and
‘mass’ beclouded me a lot. I could not digest the fact that balance plays an
essential role in the joineries of nature and how balance has a functional
value of its own.
In one of our classes, Narendra stated, “One should
use the right material with the right joinery/technology/mechanism and angles
in the right way at the right time.” This encouraged me a lot and answered most
of my uncertainties about the constraints present in any material (color
demand, cost, durability etc.)
He also addressed the functionalities of a material
(comfortable, convenience, distressful, sustainable, supportive, user -
friendly etc.) conjoining with some noteworthy facts (positives and negatives)
about different materials such as (metal, wood, glass and cloth.)
Our first course-work was to ‘build a structure with
the weakest material that could hold a weight of five kilograms.’ Materials to
be used were straw and all pins. Our experience from the research to the discussions
to the making to the trial was just commendable. I was enlightened about the
basic structures and arrangements of different types of bridges. The foundation
(base) of our bridge design was supposed to be weaved as a mat. It was a
difficult task, as the straws would dis-joint several times. Nevertheless, a
strong supplement of the all pins helped us weave the mat with finesse and
skill. Also Narendra being an expert, he advised us in opting for a much less
time-consuming method of weaving.
Working rather playing with clay would better
describe my experience with it. Learnt the art of beating clay, as to remove
the gas present and how water consistency could be maintained with keeping the
clay dry. The most surprising part was that even an eye could catch the finest
disproportion present. Re-doing my sculpture for the sake of making the first
one too skinny that it couldn’t even be scuffed off the table was a time -
consuming decision. Yet, the final outcome did turn out to be better and
creative than the first try.
Never knew that natural joineries did exist in wood. Always thought that
nailing was the only way in which two pieces of wood could be joined to produce
complex items. The
characteristics of wooden joints - strength, flexibility, toughness, appearance,
etc. - derive from the properties of the joining materials and from how they
are used in the joints. Therefore, different joinery techniques are used to
meet differing requirements. Experimenting four joineries out of six, did well
pay off the patience and hard work behind the cutting and smoothening of the
wood.
Finally, working with Plaster of Paris was something very firsthand as it
had an element of wax molding as well. Going at least halfway through the
casting process (until the making of the wax molds) was decent as well as
confusing as I mistook the hollow wax mold to a solid one. I was easily able to
construct the POP molds in the start as I had worked with it earlier. Functioning
with POP did include a lot of strain to the hands. The casting process, which
Narendra focused on, needed a lot more time than a day. So we couldn’t complete
the entire process.
Overall
it was a great involvement - working with different materials and acknowledging
each of their respective properties. Learnt that understanding the fundamentals
of any material is equally important.
DHARA
SHETH
FSP 101
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