Project 3: Polyhedral Structures

Phase A: Polyhedral Masks

When I began this project, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I decided I would do a half mask, but then I had to build it up to make it the right scale for the assignment. I experimented with different polyhedrals to decide which would be the best to make the structure. I knew that I wanted it to be decorative, so I had planned for it to have many stars and pyramids for decoration. Figuring out what would be strong enough to hold all of my details was a challenge. I decided to use a bottle. When I cut off the top of the bottle, it kind of looked like a bird. Another polyhedral I had made looked like eyes. The tall triangles that I had planned to use to build up my decorative mask kind of looked like feathers. I decided to go with this new design idea and came up with a crazy looking bird mask. I used subtle colors for the feathers so that the eyes and beak would stand out. I am really pleased with the outcome of this design even though my idea completely changed during the construction process.

Phase B:  Polyhedral Wall Structures

When I began this phase, I wanted to incorporate stars into my design. I found a star polyhedral that I liked, but I decided I wanted to use a polyhedral that was more vertical too. As I searched the website, I found the twisted decagonal prism, which I originally planned to combine with the star polyhedral, but then I decided that for a wall I would prefer a more simple looking structure. I decided to use the twisted decagonal prisms alone and alternate with negative space because I liked the simple symmetry it created and I felt that this design would work well in a very large scale in a hall or museum with very tall ceilings. Even though the design appears very simple, the many folds and cuts give it subtle details that cast many shadows and make this design very interesting to look at. I chose the colors I did because pink and green are my favorite colors. I used them in pastel because I planned for my design to be in such a large scale that bright colors would be too chaotic/overwhelming and that is not the response that I want the viewers to get from the design.