Fresh Materials.

After our first lecture and tutorial we were told to bring with along some different samples of materials ranging from woods, metals, and plastics, to leathers, and paper.

Initially my interest lay with food; being able to manipulate food as a material in a respectful way that did not upset the cultures of New Zealand. however, as food isn't on the list of materials I have changed my angle. 

I am still very interested in natural materials, taking from nature, using something, and then when its use is over, giving it back to nature to decompose and turn into something new.

Scrap of Possum

Wednesday after the tutorial I went to two shops that I love, The first was the sheep factory that used to be located on the on the eastern side of Mt Victoria, it has now moved to Lyall Bay. Here I was able to find some cheap possum scraps and some small sheepskin patches.

Rolling the possum scrap up changes its form completely.

The skin of the possum, which has been cleaned and treated. Underneath all of the fur it is very thin.

Two different coloured sheep patches, they feel quite processed and artificial.

The underside of the sheep patches doesn't feel like natural skin, but a heavily treated material.

the second is 'Made on Marion' which used to be known as Goldings, it is a little craft store on Marion street that has all sorts of materials and implements for craft work, my favourite section here is the leather bins. I was able to find some affordable, yet surprisingly large leather scraps, as well as a not so cheap, yet completely gorgeous goat hide. I am saving the goat hide for another project, it is too beautiful to experiment on.

It just so happened that the weekend prior to this course starting I was deconstructing an old lazy-boy couch, the couch had an interesting mechanism with all sorts of bits and bobs made from steel. Here are some interesting pieces.

I can only imagine that this is useful for inclining the chair.

Springs tightly coiled.

This piece of wood was one of the feet, I couldn't throw it out as it had some interesting marks from wearing over time.

This hook was connected to a spring.

This solid hunk of steel was on either side of the chair and helped to put the foot rest mechanism out.

I have an array of interesting bits and pieces of different shapes and materiality, now I will interact with them and explore their physical properties.