User:Laura.schurink/FANTASTIC FORGERIES

Long neck & Groove bottles by Hella Jongerius

http://www.jongeriuslab.com/work/long-neck-and-groove-bottles

http://www.frozenfountain.nl/hellajongerius

http://www.kunstbus.nl/design/hella+jongerius.html

http://www.unfold.be/pages/projects/items/kiosk-20/all/date

Other Projects Hella Jongerius did with bottles

http://www.jongeriuslab.com/work/chicle-project

http://www.jongeriuslab.com/work/evian-bottle

Process first replica

I was really inspired by the material experiments and material usage which Hella Jongerius applies in her works. These are my first drafts about what kind of materials I wanted to use.

First I wanted to translate the materials of the longneck bottles too directly. So after that I decides to bring the material usage more to my fashion background. So it could be knitting, felting, using patterns, weaving and embroidering.

First I tried copying the shape of a bottle with fabric, so I could make patterns out of it and resew it together in a different fabric.

Than for the bottom part of the bottle I wanted something that would be in contrast with the top part I made out of patterns with tulle. So I decided I would knit it with a thick wool. For this I used a Knifty Knitter, a tool to knit around that is used a lot to knit hats.

After trying to make the longneck bottle out of fabric I concluded that it was too traditional and easy. So instead of thinking about new ways to work with fabric I started over again. I started thinking about things that rotate, like a mixer that everyone has in their home, and how to use rotation to make the replica. Last week I saw a project of two artists that really inspired me. By rotating paint with a hardner in a bowl, the paint starts ascending up the sides and when the paint is hard it has the shape of the bowl.

STUDIO STILO - NEWTON'S BUCKET

www.studiosilo.net

newton's bucket movie

I started thinking about how I can do something with this technique but than more accessible to do it at home. So everyone can produce art or products at home.

I am going to make a mold of the top of the bottle that I can put on a domestic mixer and let it rotate, with a fluid material inside that gets harder during the rotating process.

After the mould was done it turned out to be pretty heavy, so I was scared the mixer would not be able to rotate. But it did! The first material i tried out was latex.

For the bottom part of the bottle I wanted to use another technique and a different machine that has a rotating function. So I thought of a drill or even a clock, but they are not very practical. And when I did not know anymore which machine I could use, I looked at my desk and saw the machine that I use so much for my work: my sewing machine! There is a function on my domestic sewing machine to wind a bobbin, so this part rotates! Perfect to not only be able to sew on my sewing machine but also make pottery!!

Sewing Machine / Pottery Wheel

I attached my own version of a pottery wheel (made out of, a wooden stick, cardboard and fake laminate) on the sewing machine. It worked! But it was not yet stable enough, so it still needs some work before I can really use it.

TRANSFORMATION

For the transformation of the Longneck bottle I wanted to use the part where Hella Jongerius combined two different materials together. So I chose to combine fabric with different materials in a print. First I lasercutted a print in two neoprene and felt, the print represents two materials melting together. After I lasercutted the print I experimented by casting different materials in to the print.

The first experiments I tried out where with latex and plaster that i casted into the lasercutted pattern on neoprene and felt fabric.

After the first two experiments I tried out combining the neoprene and felt with wood and resin.

After the first four experiments I did I realized that actually the texture that the laser cutter made in the fabric was much more interesting than trying to cover this texture up with other materials. I thought it was really interesting that every time I had a bit of difference in the setting of the laser cutter, the texture would be different. So I decided to go on with the textures that I could laser cut on the felt. And because the long neck bottle of Hella Jongerius is made out of 3 different materials, which can never fuse together, I thought it would be interesting to make the bottle out of one material that gives the appearance of 3 different materials. I made a little square in illustrator that I could engrave into the fabric, every time I engraved the square into the felt I tried out what happened if I changed the speed or power. All the changes in the lasercut settings I wrote down, so I would know exactly which settings I used for every square. After doing tests on the felt, I chose 3 different textures for my replica of the long neck bottle.

When I was making the replica of the Longneck Bottle with the laser cutter, I noticed that the texture on the bottle was different than the test squares I had made with the exact same settings. While the lasercutter is used to make something that you can completely control, it felt like my experiments where controlled by the fabric and the lasercutter and not by me. This I thought was actually really interesting and I decided do go on with experimenting. This time I started experimenting with different fabrics and fabrics on top of each other, to see what different effects it would have. And also this time I changed the settings of the lasercutter every time and kept all the settings for the different experiments.

Texture Clutch

After making all the experiments, I made an overview and looked at all the new textures. I really reminded me of some sort of animal skins. Although it is totally not organic, it kind of looked natural. It was almost like these where skins of animals we don't know or don't know yet. I started thinking this could maybe be the future leather, for which we do not have to kill animals, but actually create them. So I really wanted to show how we could use the "new leather" in a final product and actually right away I was thinking about all the leather color block clutches and bags you see today. I chose some of my experiments to work with and started making my own color block clutch with the new animal skins.

The long neck bottle really represents the way Hella Jongerius works for me. You can really see the contrast in different materials, techniques and object she always works with. So in my process for this project I mainly tried to experiment with the contrasts in techniques and materials. And all these little experiments I did during the first period of the minor I displayed in Hella's Longneck Bottle. So you can really see the contrast I worked with in the different experiments.