And BAM suddenly I'm very busy

It's only been two days since I last posted, but it's felt like an entire month has gone by. What a whirlwind the last 48 hours has been! As always, since I have a faulty memory, I'll retrace the past few days with time-stamped pictures that never lie.

Our second day at Ecosa started off with a team effort to produce something functional from shredded paper waste, flour, and water. Here is my group's product -- a compostable compost bin that you can throw directly into the compost in once piece! It's supposed to be taller and have a smaller mouth, but we had issues with weight-bearing and getting our paper-mache to dry, but at least it's a prototype.

Our conceptual idea for mass production, basically your recycling facility picks up your shredded paper waste in addition to your regular recycling, and in return you get a stack of these self-assemble compostable compost bins. 

Lunch break at the courthouse:

Plaid party!

The courthouse is one of the few open greenspaces where people can hang out. At the center of downtown, it's close to our studio and "Whiskey Row" (a block downtown with a lot of bars and saloons! Actual saloons! Apparently that's where the biker gangs go to drink.)

Candy legos at a popular candy store on Whiskey Row with SO MUCH CANDY

When we got back, we were told to scrounge around Prescott to find places with leftover/waste/recycled materials that we could use to construct our first project, a sturdy yet lightweight 18x24 portfolio case and a three ring binder. So we spent the entire afternoon driving around and hitting up Kuhle's Scrap Yard and an array of thrift stores. 

A (minute) sample of what you can find at the scrap yard:

At the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) thrift store: 

Outside the DAV. Reminds me of my favorite scene here

A one dollar thrift store find! It has houndstooth, paisley, and horses. Did I mention it was a dollar? And yes, I am on a bike in the apartment with a helmet (safety first!), in front of a map of Arizona that eerily matches my new shirt. 

One thing about Prescott: though it is mostly a Republican town, Prescott College brings in a mix of very liberal, progressive students. There seem to be a ton of great community projects in the area, all of which are fascinating. For example, Karma Farms was started by a student (now alumnus) where volunteers farm unused property with consent of the landowner, growing food for sustenance for volunteers, and leftovers are given to the impoverished. How sweet is that? 

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And now, for your viewing pleasure, are some photos of the studio so you get a sense of where I spend most of my time everyday here. 

A model I fell in love with

Dawnielle, one of my roomies, in the studio.

The A/V room, where we watch movies and presentations

The next 24 hours is where my sense of time is completely altered. After our lunch break, we got more details on our portfolio project and then were sent out in the wild to find our materials. The due date: the next DAY at 3 pm. And vroooooom we were off!

We dumpster dove/checked out countless empty dumpsters (seriously, like every single dumpster in town), went back to the scrap yard (such a cool place), asked for scraps at some frame store, dove some more dumpsters (Loungerats -- this was my first time being completely inside a dumpster! Be proud.) and then already exhausted, headed to our classmate Matt's house to get some serious work done, and inevitably a good amount of bonding.

Christine, another classmate, scoping out a dumpster behind a Home Depot

Matt is the one that consistently goes to Burning Man and has pretty much anything you would need to create something using metal or plastic and anything else, basically. And I mean anything. Welding, nailing, screwing, bolting, drilling, sawing, cutting, molding, riveting, etc. could all be done at casa de Matt. Without a doubt, our class' portfolios would have been a lot shabbier without Matt's expertise and wide range of tools and skills. We worked until 9 pm, then exhausted, trudged back home to continue working well into the night, which actually got quite chilly. (Though the afternoon in the next day was intensely sunny and hot. Yay desert weather)

Christine, Drew, and Matt in the backyard. Check out Matt's kinetic machine in the left midground!

Exhausted and many stressful hours later, after many many 'experiments' (i.e. failed designs), our class was finished and headed to the studio by 3 for critique. Running around town looking for materials trying to get our ideas to work was VERY Project Runway. But no Heidi or Tim :(. Here are some snapshots of the finished products: 

Notebook velcros to Matt's portfolio

Christine took a "DO NOT ENTER" sign to make the notebook. Siiiiick.

Dawnielle's has pant pockets inside

My portfolio (paint swatches overlaid with transparencies from the Ecosa office, and the handles are made from old spark plugs)

The interior and notebook

The scrap yard didn't have any metal 'Z's, so I flipped an 'S' instead

After the critiques, we got out of class early. Since we hadn't eaten anything in a while, Drew took the out-of-staters to a local Mexican restaurant for linner. SO DELICIOUS. And Drew is good buddies with the owners, who were super friendly. Nothing like Hispanic food in the Southwest. (Except Austinian Tex-mex according to Dawnielle)

Then the four of us went back to matt's to clean up the horrendous mess we left. Project space always ends up looking like a tornado busted through. 

One of the work tables

One of Matt's sculptures in his front yard

We were finally free to go home and rest. I caught up on LOST. OMG RIGHT?!?! Desmond is a badass. FINALE SUNDAAAAAAAY. You'll probably hear from me before then, some of us are planning on hitting up the Granite Dells this weekend and I promise lots and lots (and too many) photos!

Thanks for reading <333

x-posted rompalime.blogspot.com