Advanced model making

This was a project funded by the Teaching Enhancement Fund, intended to develop more effective teaching material and support for student learning in the workshops. The project had two strands, the first being to observe and investigate making processes employed by professional designers and the second being to put into practice what had been learned from the professionals. I recorded one to one interviews with five professionals for whom making is central to their practice. These included a ceramicist, a stonemason, a model maker, a furniture designer/maker and a self-confessed reluctant maker. For the second strand, I then set myself the task of making a visual replica of an existing product chosen for its visual complexity and range of surface finishes. The documentation of that process enabled me to prepare a small exhibition of the resulting artefacts and also a short series of talks introducing the processes involved in model making to Level 4 students. The work was shown at the Faculty of ACES Learning and Teaching Conference on 16 September 2016 and has subsequently been on display in the Head Post Office. The teaching material was used in Level 4 modules during October 2016.