Yuchen Yu

In the light container project, I made the shade with cotton and paper and used pins and staplers to hold them in place. This project took me two tries to accomplish the final result. My idea came from flowers, and I drew some sketches that I myself liked a lot. However, the physical outcome of my first try didn’t look anything like my sketch–the scale is too big and it became saggy, the light sources were too scattered to create the emission I pictured them to have, and the shade was overall too “frontal”.

In the critique, I discovered that I am interested in the contrast between soft material and paper (the different texture as well). As a result, I decided to redo my entire shade. I stacked the three “traps” to create derivation (as most plants are). The swirling and repetitive structures are resembling natural elements. I tested the light emission without the cotton and the effect was that the light wasn’t bright enough because the shade wasn’t wide enough to carry out the light. So I added the cotton for the purpose both to give the shade a texture contrast and a better emission. I also added two thin paper straps and curved them into circles as a common technique used in floral art in order to create balance and space. The final result was that it looked like the shade is on fire when turned on.