Creating the flowers for the N

I spent this weekend creating roses for the letter N.

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I had created flowers, out of paper before, and I do not find this task difficult. When my team and I, talked about the decoration of the N, Julia was a little worried about the time it will take me to create the roses. She suggested using ivy string, and wrap it around the letter, but my opinion about this is that the letter will look ugly and boring. Another reason is that the ivy string doesn’t allow us to make any interaction with the letter. We were advised, by the teacher, to make only 4 letters with digital interaction, and the rest of the letters to make with a simple design and not complex physical interaction.

For the letter N, we chose to use servo motors and a pressure sensor. My idea about the N is to attach the roses to the servo motors, and when someone presses the sensor, the roses start rotating.

During our last team meeting, we decided that I am going to use the easier way to create the big roses. I had a few ways in mind, but the easiest way, of making roses, that I know, is by folding a long stripe of paper. At some point, the paper stripe starts looking like a rose. This is not the best way of making roses, but it is easy, and the paper flowers look semi-realistic and cool.

Unfortunately, because the letters will be outside, I had to use a thicker paper sheet for the roses. The thick paper will make the roses more stable, and in case it’s raining, the paper will not color the letter, and the flower will not fall apart that easily. (My first suggestion was to use crepe paper, but it is very thin, and if it gets wet, it colors everything around it. I tested the crepe paper for the coloring thing. I wanted to test how much water will make the paper fall apart and will make the colors bleed. My test showed me that even one drop of water destroys the paper. I also found out the when you put glue on this paper it changes its color.)

Creating the roses was very difficult because of the thicker paper. I spent my whole weekend creating four roses (I told my team that it is going to take me a maximum of 2 hours). I made at least seven attempts. That is due to my perfectionism.

I wanted the roses to be perfect and look as realistic as possible, therefore I kept holding paper for two days until I had four good-looking roses.

I did not expect this task to be that time-consuming, but the truth is that I have never made roses with thick paper - it’s difficult.

I also made small roses that I am going to put on the letter. They will not rotate, but they are just going to complete the look of the rose bush.

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This weekend I realized that I chose the most difficult task of all. Building and crafts are the most time-consuming, and very important tasks. The pedestal already took me four days to build (working from morning until midnight). And I have a feeling that the letters will be the same. Luckily, Saxion works only until 10 pm...