Elleyse Na
Mushroom Music/Jewelry Box
Class of: 2025
Major: Design and Technology BFA
Medium: Mixed Media: Plywood, Felt, Wood Glue, Paper Clay, Fabric Paint, Acrylic Paint, Aluminum Wire, thread.
Faculty: Aviva Shulem
Prompt: Students will develop a 3D object/artifact during the next five weeks, which demonstrates its connection to the community you identify with or define you, your belief, your personality, etc. The item can be a sculpture, a functional object/tool, etc. The Object can demonstrate or express feelings of connecting to a particular community (by choice). Students will explore how & why they feel connected. Consider how you can use color, shape, form, texture, and scale to represent these feelings visually.
I created this working music box to replicate my childhood experience being homeschooled. I wanted to represent the homeschool community the way I remembered it. I wanted to focus specifically on my childhood and experience with it and the nostalgia. As a child we would always do class outside because of the consistent weather in southern California. I used the felt, fabric paint, and stitches to have a playful and child like elements while also being whimsical. I wanted to create something very cute and homemade looking to relate to how I used to craft so much when I was homeschooled. I used to hangout with my homeschooled friends in my neighborhood and do crafts that’s what I was trying to replicate with the felt and friendly and cute shapes. I wanted to use stars, hearts, and mushrooms because they were my favorite things to draw as a kid. I wanted to incorporate the music mechanism because I feel like it represents my new interest in design mixed with my love for sewing and crafting. I intended for this to be a jewerly box so in the styling photos I show it with some of my rings, bracelets, and earrings in it. Since I lined the top with felt it can be used as a way to store earrings by poking the wire through. The small stones and mushrooms can hold the rings and there’s room for other trinkets. This piece reminds me of how free I felt being homeschooled and how much more in control I felt. The playful colors of the felt remind me of the construction paper I used to draw on growing up.