Introduction
“How can you find, explore, and/or expand your passion?”
For the Junior explorations project, we freestyle students would develop and explore a skill built upon an interest that connects/addresses a list of 21st Century Skills
Process
For my explorations project, I decided to adapt a character of mine, Cassidy, into a plush doll. I chose this particular project because I wanted to expand my skills in sewing and step outside my comfort zone by experimenting with new designs and fabrics.
I tested positive for covid right around the time we began work on this project, so I lost about a week or two worth of progress on this assignment. This meant I had to move fast, and that I did. Luckily I had already done some conceptualizing for the plush.
Because I was on such a time crunch, I couldn’t be too picky about the fabrics available to me at the Joann’s Fabrics I went to, and wouldn’t have time to store hop or order fabric online. This resulted in the colors not being entirely accurate to my original illustration. This is a detail only I would really care about, but something I feel is important to point out nonetheless.
I managed to turn out my final product in three days.
The first day was dedicated to getting materials, embroidering the face, and getting the body parts cut out and (mostly) sewn. The second day was dedicated to stuffing the body parts and attaching them to one another. The last day was dedicated to clothes and hair.
I absolutely could not afford to start over (in any major way), which is why I was relieved that the embroidery process went off with little to no issues in spite of my lack of experience.
The one part I had to redo was the shirt because, against my better judgment, I had used an extremely simple pattern that left a lot of raw edges and fit the body poorly. Remaking the shirt with a more complex pattern was very time-consuming, but was definitely worth it in the end. Coincidentally, I had already made a tiny pair of brown shorts for a project which I had abandoned, so I didn’t have to spend any extra time making them for this assignment.
I was pretty scared for the hair because I decided I would be hot-gluing it to the head, so if I messed up, there was no going back. Luckily for me, it went off without a hitch, though I did have to add more pieces than I originally anticipated. Additionally, I realized too late that I had glued the front bangs piece in the wrong direction. This is, once again, only something I would care about, but it still feels a bit tragic.
Final Production and Reflection
Overall, I’m really pleased with how this project turned out in the end. I was able to apply my previous sewing knowledge in a way I wouldn’t have thought I could before. I’ve always worked with socks when making plushies and was worried that not being able to fall back on that familiarity would keep me from accomplishing my vision. Sure enough, I surprised myself with how well the embroidery came out, as, at that point, the most I had done was embroider whiskers or noises. In the end, I proved myself wrong and was both surprised and impressed with how much I was able to achieve with this project.
*Bonus pieces of concept art I did at the beginning of the project
Experimental Music
For this project, we were meant to make an experimental song utilizing the virtual instrument tools available in Protools. I teamed up with my friend Kyle.
The main word the two of us used to describe what we wanted was “funky”. We had a lot of fun messing around with instruments and improvising melodies, and, although we had no concrete plan going into it, we were still able to make something really cool sounding. For whatever reason, I really wanted to include a trumpet, which you can hear towards the end. Kyle has a lot more experience making music than I do, and that was a big help when it came to organizing a lot of the sounds and melodies. Our friend Zeytin said it reminded her of a duck walking down the street, which is how we got the name. It reminds me a bit of lo-fi jazz or just the kind of youtube music you’d put on while you’re working, I really like it.