Prototype comes to shape

So I tried to make a few prototypes. But guess what? They were so bad that i ended up throwing them. But as they say, one needs to keep trying till he finally succeeds, I did not give up.
So finally! I can say that I'm happy with the latest prototype that I made. 
I tried to make the Storage using metal wire mesh. But it was too heavy for the entire model to hold up. so i decided to use plastic mesh instead. And it did the job pretty well.

                 

 

Storage flap-open (left) and closed (right)

Candid picture that my mom took

Rendering various ideas

I've been trying to draw whatever I can that best suits the idea of my design solution.
Here are some of my ideas for an overhead storage unit.

Variations of overhead storage
Image: Ruchita Sahni

Collapsible storage
Image: Ruchita Sahni

I think that a collapsible overhead storage would be the best idea as it can be opened or closed according to the shopkeeper's need.

Tomorrow i am going to try and make a prototype for this idea.

I hope it turns out good.

Time for Design Brief

Now is the time to get down to writing the design brief. 
As I've mentioned before, my opportunity area is a saree shop that is very tiny and the problem area includes space and storage issues. So that is what I've kept in mind while writing down the brief.

My basic idea is to create an overhead storage space for the shop as it will create more space on the floor of the shop. 

           

 From the visual Diary: Ideation

Image: Ruchita Sahni

Mood Board

The mood that I wish to capture is that of neatly arranged boxes in the shop that has quite enough amount of space so that the shopkeeper can display his sarees with ease.

Mood Board

Inspiration Board

In this post I am sharing my inspiration board.
I was inspired by modern day shelves that occupy the least amount of space but are very efficient.

Inspiration  Board

Concept Board

Now is the time to get down to creating the remaining boards. So in this post I am sharing my concept board.

Concept Board

The basic idea is of overhead storage as the space in the shop is very less. And all of the space is occupied by the saree boxes. 

So with the help of overhead storage, the shopkeeper can get more free space in the shop and display his sarees with ease.

Miniature Model

The other day we were supposed to make a model that represents our opportunity area.
And instantly I formed the basic idea of how I would be proceeding with the work. The shop: Teena Sarees is a 6x6 ft shop. so the model was going to be a basic cube. 
So I went ahead and bought sunboard to form the structure. Slowly I kept adding the little details to the model. I wanted to show the hangers and sarees in the model too. So I made mini versions of hangers from wires, and then I used some fabrics to make the sarees.
So here is what I ended up with.

Teena Saree Shop Model
Image: Ruchita Sahni

Image: Ruchita Sahni

 I added little sequins and stones to give a detailed look to the sarees. It ended up looking so cute.

                                 

Saree details
Image: Ruchita Sahni

Saree ke fall saa.. :D

Been working on my log book. And its coming together beautifully. 
I've been thinking of ways to give the pages a feel of the saree shop that is my opportunity area. 

Gif: Tumblr.com

Hence I decided to give one of the pages, a border made up of saree borders. I like the way it looks now.

From the log book
Image: Ruchita Sahni

Boards? Yet Again :P

Hi 
My class was lagging behind. We had not even started with the boards. 
So this week, our teacher gave us an ultimatum. We had to finish the work in two days. Me and my group members immediately started with the brain storming. Three boards were supposed to me done- Visual culture, socio-cultural and product and merchandise. 

Brain storming. Image: Ruchita Sahni

 We decided broadly what all material would be required for the boards. 
So the next day, we began working. I was given the responsibility for the material-merchandise board. 
Somehow we managed to meet the deadline. And this is the result.

Product and merchandise. Image: Saira Setia 

Product- merchandise board represents variety of products available for sale in a place. 

Visual culture. Image: Saira Setia

 Visual culture board represents aspects of culture including art history, philosophy etc

Socio cultural board. Image: Saira Setia

Socio cultural board represents behaviour, customs and beliefs that exist within the population. See you later. 

Lane By-Lane

Chandni Chowk, as we all know is such a humongous market. Getting lost there is very common. 
So I began with some online research and printed out maps. I got to know that the market has several by-lanes which are all dedicated to different purposes. 
Here is something about the most popular by-lanes of Chandni Chowk:

Nai Sarak. Img: Wikipedia

Nai Sarak: meaning new street is the linking road, which connects the main Chandni Chowk Road to Chawri Bazar and has a very big wholesale and retail market of mainly school and college textbooks. The street can be reached by taking a left turn after theGali Paranthe Wali and just before the Katra Nawab Gali on the main Chandni Chowk Road.

Paranthe wali gali. Img: Wikipedia

Dariba Kalan: Today, most of the shops in Dariba Kalan trade in silver, gold, kundan, polki and diamond jewellery, besides costume jewellery. Some also deal in authenticitar, a special variety of perfume and attar. These stores claim to date back to the early 19th century. Also near by is Kinari Bazaar, Gali Kazanchi, and Gali Paranthe Wali, also at both ends of the street are famous jalebi shops.
Paranthewali gali: Gali Paranthe Wali or Paranthe wali Gali (गली पराँठेवाली), is the name of a narrow street in the Chandni Chowk area of Delhi, India, noted for its series of shops selling paratha, a fried Indian bread, and now a popular culinary destination.
Thats all for now!

Process Book

Hello
I've started my work in the process book. I've decided to use water colors a lot this time, as in the last project I barely painted anything. 

It's going to get pretty colourfull this time.
Last night I began drawing a few things and I also snapchatted messy paints and brushes to my friends. They responded to this with snapchats of their process books. That made me even more motivated to work.

Img: Ruchita Sahni

I noticed some really good sketch- worthy 'chat-wallas' when we were in Chandni Chowk last time. I took their pictures and decided to draw those. Came up with quite good perspective drawings too, Here is one of the drawings that I drew adjacent to a page that describes the food scene of the market.

From the process book: Padam Chat Corner, Kinari Bazaar.
Img: Ruchita Sahni

Don't tell me that the 'chole bhatura' doesn't look mouth watering! Because as soon as I showed it to my brother, he began craving for one of those. Haha.

This is making me hungry too now. I've got to go and feed my stomach something good!

See you later! 

Interviewing shopkeepers; Strikes and Protesters

Hi there!
The research is right on track. I took the interview of the owner of the shop that I've decided as my micro area. 
It was a very funny situation. When me and my group members reached the market and began asking questions from the shopkeepers about the history of their shop, their income etc, they thought that we were some inspectors or something.
 We could hear them whispering and giggling to each other stuff like "Arrey, ye raid karaenge idhar, mat batao inhe kuch". It was pretty hillarious. Ultimately we had to show them our college IDs. That reassured them that we were just students. Or maybe not. But soon they got comfortable and answered to our questions politely.
I kept making notes as they answered.
The owner of Teena Sarees, a 6ft x 6ft shop, was Shyam Sundar, a 70 year old man. According to him, the shop opened up in 1943, by one of his family members by the name of Kherati Lal.
They sell sarees, the prices of which range from Rs.100 to Rs.5000.

Maliwara. Image: Anuja Kathuria

It was a good day to interview as half the shops were closed due to certain strikes. 

Because of this, there was hardly any crowd.

Crowd of protesters, Maliwara. Image: Ruchita Sahni

But at one point we did get stuck in the middle of a group of protesters. We stood there frozen in the middle of the lane as they went past us. 

But this is all for now.

Catch you later!

Spending a day at Chandni Chowk

Hi
My class has been divided into groups in which we are supposed to research together.
So we finally went to Chandni Chowk. And my oh my! It felt like the entire world wanted to fit into the market. It was so crowded!
We got pushed here and there as the streets were so narrow. Yet somehow, the rickshaws made their way through them. 
We reached the market via metro. As soon as we got out of the metro stations, we could see small shops and people trying to sell small goods such as table mats, and incense sticks to us. As we went further, we could see food stalls and small dhaba/ restaurants. We saw the the famous Natraj Dahi Bhalle Wala. The delicious aroma from the dahi bhalas was irresistable. But I tried to restrict myself from them as I'm trying to maintain my diet. LOL.

One of the by-lanes of Chandni Chowk
Img: Ruchita Sahni

So, we kept going further. We crossed the famous Pranthewali Gali too that my parents always mention whenever someone mentions Chandni Chowk. It was fun to see the variety of paranthas they made. One of those varieties was "nuts parantha". I'm not kidding. 

A shop on the Kinari Bazaar Road
Img: Ruchita Sahni

Finally we reached the Kinari Bazaar. It is said to be one of the biggest market when it comes to shopping for weddings and special occasions. And truly, it was so colourful. I could see saree borders, also called as 'gotas' throughout the long and narrow street.
At one point some of my group members went missing too. Haha. We found them later. It was okay.
We thought about exploring the place a little more. We came accross Maliwara. It was one lane entirely dedicated to sarees. Everything was so beautifull.
So we came to a decision. As  part of our project, we were supposed to select one macro and micro area. So we chose maliwara.
The shop that i chose is called as Teena Sarees.

Teena Sarees, Maliwara, Chandni Chowk
Img: Ruchita Sahni

We talked to the owners of the shops and came to know a little bit about the history of their shops. Some of them were even older than 1947 (independence of India).
That's all for now!
See you soon.

Journey Continues

Hi again!
Last module was so exciting. I got to know so much about the fashions of the past.
But in this module, I'm even more excited as we have a project that involves going to certain markets and doing the research there.
The market that my class decided to do the project on is Chandni Chowk.
I've never been to there and I've been told that it is one of the busiest markets of India.
So the first thing I did was google the images of the market. Everything seems to be so colorfull! I'm sure it's going to be fun once we get there!
See you soon!

Journey

After weeks and weeks of working on this project, I would like to say that all of it was worth it.
I would have never thought of the beautiful outcomes that a topic such as Fashion during the World War II could result in.
I would like to thank all my teachers who have guided me in every step of the project. They inspired me to push my boundaries and do better. 
There were a lot of ups and downs that I came across, but they only taught me to keep moving forward and be more creative with my work.
This whole journey was a wonderful experience.
Thank you for giving me such an opportunity to expand my horizons.
XOXO

~~.~~

Remains of the War

I never paid attention to the actual words that describe my whole theme- World War.
So this time i started out keeping these 2 words in my mind. I began exploring and doodling things that i could relate war with- weapons, fire, remains, ashes were a few of them.

Exploring the theme

   

Giving a look of markings on a map

This is where i decided to print out a a map of the world in different sizes and burn their edges. That'll look like the remains from the war.

I did burn my finger for a milli- second while doing so. LOL. 

Burning little maps printed on strips

As you can see, I wanted to give a look of maps and markings in this swatch. So I went ahead and covered the head of the pins with some net fabric and pinned them onto the burnt maps that i pasted onto thermocol.

And here is the final outcome!

See you!

~~.~~

V for Victory

The Victory campaign was popularised by Winston Churchill in 1941. He upheld his fingers in the form of "V".
This "V" was used on so many things, from jewellery to packaging.

Source: www.ashbyinteriors.co.uk 

I decided to do something using the "v" sign. I cut out sunboard first. painted it black. Then i tried bending wires in V shape. 

But none of them looked too good.

Then I recalled about the ban on silk during the war. I remember reading that new man made fabrics such as nylon were created at the time which were cheaper and of good quality too.

Thats when I cut up some old stocking and started pasting them in V- shape, 

But it felt like I wasn't doing any justice to such a stretchable fabric. So I thought about it and gave myself some break. 

The next day I woke up and all of a sudden my brain told me to use pins to hold it down and stretch the fabric! Thank you brain.

I cut up a 15x15 cm piece of thermocol, Covered it with a black fabric, and started pinning down the stockings fabric. And yes, i pinned it in a way that it looked like the alphabet "V".

Exploring the V- Sign

Stretchable fabric

I'm very happy about this swatch. And I hope you like it too!

V- from stretched fabric

~~.~~

Helmets and pins

Since I loved this picture with these helmets covered with rope, I have decided to replicate this but on a smaller scale.

I first thought of what I could use to get a hemispherical shape.

The idea of using table tennis balls struck my head. So I went out and bought a pack of five tennis- balls.

Next i decided to cut them in half and paint them black.

I had a net fabric lying around in my house. I got hold of it and covered the half cut black balls.

I decided to place them together surrounded by smaller hemispherical objects. I used board pins in green and white colour to do so.

And here it is. 

Untill next time!

~~.~~

Air Planes in a smokey sky

Finally my exploration with planes has come together. I drew, cut, paste, paint a lot of little planes. And I guess all that work was worth it.

            

I decided to make the background from black shiny fabric. I pasted it with creases still on it.

The planes that I've made are cut and attached by slits. A total of 3 parts make the plane. I spray painted them gold to give a bit of luster amidst all the black and grey ashes.

And Voila!

This is the final result!

HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

~~.~~

Gold planes

Pretty and messy are two words i would like to use to describe the swatch making process. My hands are covered in gold spray paint and frayed away black threads. But i don't mind a little gold on my hands.

Im attempting to make a swatch inspired by the fighter planes in the sky filled with grey black smoke. 

Im done making miniature paper planes.

Painting in the process

                                 

Ive cut and pasted the black satin onto the sheet in a 15x15 cm box. For smokey effect, ive burnt a sheet of paper to form ashes.

Burning paper to form ashes

All thats left to do bow is to compile everything together. 

I really hope my teachers like it.

                    ~~.~~