Entering into this class I had a relatively vague idea of what I would be learning. I am really happy with the direction it has taken and I have definitely learned some very useful and exciting lessons about  various topics. I think my new favorite word is Ideate. Many people face challenges throughout the creative process because they tend to be overly critical of themselves. With our coffee project we have tried to overcome this by encouraging silly and “outside of the cup” ideas.  I feel much more comfortable with the process of creativity in general because of our lessons in ideation.

The lab section of this class has been both exciting and frustrating for me because I had some issues with some of my figures in Sketch up. I had to redo all of my models since I had done them incorrectly the first time.  I first started out looking for tutorials on youtube, but many of the tutorials were for people with the premium Sketch up software. I found Sketch up Learn, and MasterSketchup.com to be really useful in helping me redesign my models and learn. I couldn’t figure out how to model some of my Ideas which had more organic shapes in the design, so I had to stick with basic shapes and objects. I found a program called Blender that I want to use in the future to model some of my ideas. For example I really wanted to model a door nob  in the shape of a spider, or a beetle. The insects legs would be designed to extend beyond their normal length and curve to a central point. The space between the spider legs or beetle legs would be filled by fingers when gripping the handle. Unfortunately because of time constraints and lack of skill I wasn’t able to design this in Sketch up.

When doing the five forms assignment the most challenging part was finding  certain materials for the designs. For example I wanted to use wood for the doorknob and chocolate for the text. Although there are numerous websites which offered services with subtractive printing machines like CNC machine or Laser cutter, a lot of them did not offer the service with the materials that I was looking for. I couldn’t find a website like Shape ways that allowed me to choose a wood or glass material. Although I was able to find information about 3D printers capable of printing chocolate, there was no service that allowed me to upload my own customized design, and get an estimated time and price of production.

I really enjoyed reading “Makers” By Chris Anderson, because there is so much practical and useful information in the book. His writing is very engaging and motivational. He makes it sound like anyone can do what he does.

For our coffee project I’ve really enjoyed working with my group. We try really hard to meet and discuss how to make our ideas better and I think we all are enjoying working on this project. I think my strength would be brainstorming, because we all had limited time for our projects with everything else going on, but I managed to brain storm as much as I could while being very time pressed.