Hold 'Em

Hold 'Em
Tammy Alborte
Crayons
Fall 2014

Proposal: I noticed that I kept coming back to the same set of words from a list I made while brainstorming: relaxation, education and the ability to have more than one option. We made a list in class about things we did that were "play" when we were young, and the things we considered to be "play" now. I knew I wanted to transform a child play "thing" into an adult one. Our ideas of what is enjoyable have definitely changed since childhood and in some ways, are drastic. Whatever the object was that I transformed, I wanted to ensure the use was completely different . I chose to turn crayons into poker chips, The chips can still be used to color with or write, but the more you choose to use one function, the more the other will lose its utility. The photograph is just a mode of display if captured during use, but ideally the objects will be used and interacted with as toys would be .

Research: Outside of our class brainstorming I looked at a lot of Jeff Koons work for aesthetic inspiration. Koons says that his work has no hidden meaning or critique but the forms alone read as playful, especially pieces like Balloon Dog (orange) and Tulips. I also sourced a bit from Frank Stella who has a minimilist approach that I wanted to incorporate. Trying to achieve simplicity because play is very simple. Below are some pictures of notes and sketches. 

The Process:

Materials:

• 15 packs of 24 crayons
• aluminum foil
• cooking oil
• crock pot
• cookie cutters

First I sorted all the crayons into like color groups.

Then I put the different groups into the hot crock pot.

After the crayons melted I poured them onto a baking sheet lined with foil and oil then cute then out with the cookie cutter.

Additional Photos: