intro twigs (found in zürich) is a project about simplicity and connection to the place where you come from. Simplicity not only in it’s manufacture, that uses only simple elements: a piece of an used utensils, a wire and a natural branch. But also in it’s creation, where the observation is appreciated. It’s the idea of looking at the floor and at your surrounding and see what you can do with it. Connection to the place where you come from because each branch found has a home (a tree) and this is not forgotten. It’s also about being a part of what you buy. You have to break it to use, therefore the object is not finished when the user buys it. He or she has to use it’s own strength to make it useful.
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process At the beginning I had tree main ideas. golden ratio wood break! I putted together the wood and the breaking. I wanted to do something with wood because it is a material that I am really curious to work with. And the breaking, is because I think it’s interesting the idea of you buying something that you are gonna have to break it in order to use it. Breaking is usually associated to a negative experience, so I thought it would be interesting to give it a new feeling. the idea and first attempts The idea was to make utensils to mix the salad you had to break it in order to use it. I thought it would me interesting that it would have the a similar appearance to a branch. Branches are easily associated to the act of breaking and also it makes a really specific sound when it happens. I collected some branches around Zßrich so I could understand the particularity of the shape and so my product would have a more natural look. Here are my first attempts.
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1. Carving wood This one was carved by hand. And as it is possible to see in the picture, it is not finished. I couldn’t finish because to make the unfinished version of each one of those took me around 13 hours and it didn’t turn out the way I expected. Maybe the lack of experience with wood was the reason.
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2. Laser cut This one was med with laser cut and painted with black painting. I thought it had an iterating look but it needed some change one shape. The one I was working on looked like a flower, which was not my intention. I worked for a while on this one at the same time as I was working on the one that became my final ideas. I abandoned this idea because, as much as it was nice and stimulating for me, seemed more special (specially for me as an exchange student in Z端rich).
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Final idea and inspirations The final idea is to take real branches that I find in Z端rich and turn them into utensils for mixing salad. I related this action to a really simple and prehistoric way of life. Going out looking for a natural object such as a branch and try to make it useful, made me relate the whole process to the times when men (or cavemen) were more connected to nature and had more time and patience to contemplate his surrounding. Based on that, I decided to make a connection in between the user and the place where branch came from in Z端rich. For that, I started taking pictures of the trees from where I took the branches and I wanted to put them somehow in the product.
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1. Prehistoric objects were a big inspiration. The ways they made then fixed with knots and rocks were considered important to the project. 2-4. Sculptures, pictures and objects made of rocks and with this rough and rustic aesthetics were also a big fountain of inspiration. They made me see that the product could have a sort of imperfect look.
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Logo The logo represents the breaking of the branch. And also the big spacing in between the characters represents to me the branches all over the floor.
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twigs (found in z端rich) twigs (found in z端rich) contains: the salad mixer a small card with a brief explanation of the project another card with the picture of the tree that originated the branch, the address of the tree and the QR Code that leads the person to a map showing the location of the tree a packaging made of kraft paper
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tw i g s (found in zürich) is a project about simplicity and connection to the place you come from. Back in the day, utensils were made of twigs found on the floor and on the trees. Men and women had to pick them up and carve their own tools. Walking around a city like Zürich a lot goes unnoticed. This twig was found on the floor under the tree from the picture. Now it’s up to you to break it yourself and prepare a good and fresh salad. Like in the good old days!
Location of your tree Meierwiesenstrasse, 62
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Price The price to make one of my products is really low. The branches are a present from nature, the utensils come from Zßrich’s second hand stores (and cost no more than two francs), the wire costs 16 francs for 65 meters. The cleaning equipments are also not so expensive. The highest price would be the printing, but even so it’s not expensive (less than 3 francs per 4 products, including the special paper). The big thing is the manufacturing. I calculated the whole time that I use to make around 6 products: Finding branches from one hour to one hour and a half Pre cleaning one hour To dry them forty minutes To drill and to sand them two hours Real cleaning three hours Heat them up them (for the color) one hour and a half Put the Holzversiegelung and wait for it to dry three hours Drill and cut the utensils 1 hours
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Make the utensils forty minutes Print and prepare the packaging forty minutes Of course there are ways to save time, but with all the the unexpected events during the processe, it’s takes around 17 hours of hard working to make more or less 5 products. That’s a lot of time for one person. And it’s not a peaceful process; things break and get out of control. Price calculation: All the material CHF 1,76 (one product) My work per hour CHF 3 In 17 hours I can do 5, so to make one it would take around 2 hours and 40 minutes. But with the time for drying everything in the cleaning and sanitation steps, I should add around 2 hours, so I put 5 hou CHF 15 per produt Price that I’ll sell for the store CHF 16,76 VK (EK . 2,5) CHF 41,90 MWST (8% . VK) 41,90 + 3,35=45,252
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conclusion I’m very satisfied with the result of this project. Made me think how I can explore other materials and medias. At the beginning I wanted to do a book because I like it, but then decided to make something that would be new and more uncomfortable for me. Making such a rough looking product also played with my idea of perfection, which was fun. I’m once again happy with the final result of a project in ZHdK, and with my mind a little bit more opened. Thanks to Bitten Stetter, Dominique Blumer, Nadja Aebi, Thomas Tobler and Armando Wehrli from the Werkstatt, and my classmates. André Massotti.
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