origami objects

So I was thinking origami...

only, not with paper:
Fat stocks Have You Met Miss Jones' bone china origami cranes and scrunched paper bags, both which have been the apple of my eye for some months. I like the idea of a temporary and delicate artform being immortalised in a lasting material like bone china.
http://www.haveyoumetmissjones.com.au/

I was thinking origami for the chess set but permanent pieces would be much more preferable.

Chess Poster lecture

* Modern chess invented in 15th century - India, Persia

* standardised chess set = Modern Staunton chess set

* 12 piece set (6+6)

My chess pieces should be:

* differentiated from each other

* a set of symbols of a recognisable hierarchy/monarchy

* belonging to the same set - have a similarity which ties them together, a repeat eg. stroke weight, angle

* black and white (and invertible)

* 2D (silhouettes/outlines) or 3D rendered

* vector objects in Illustrator

EX 2: Chess Poster

FACULTY OF ART AND DESIGN
DIS1103
digital processes for art and design

EXERCISE 2: CHESS POSTER
Brief:
Design and produce a black and white poster (artboard = A4) that displays your design for an original chess set. i.e. King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn.
Your design solution for the individual pieces must be translated into positive and reversal versions (black/white pieces). Creatively, you may wish to approach the design problem from a more formal or conceptual angle.
The week 5 lecture will describe the structure and symbolism of the chess pieces.

Method:
1. Research the history and design of the chess set.
2. Create the various chess pieces in Illustrator
3. Design the chess poster incorporating the chess pieces you have designed

Objectives:
• intermediate use of Illustrator drawing tools
• exploration of the design and art of chess
• design objects suitable for reversal (black/white)
• basic layout using Illustrator

Criteria:
1. technical proficiency (5)
2. design of chess pieces (5)
3. layout (5)

Deadline: Week 7 (20-24 April)

Final

I added the bird prints walking over the face of the tree stump to break up the circular shapes a little. I also felt these needed to be darker and a bit more obvious than the twigs.
The fig 1. 2, 3 and 4 refer the scientific names of the deer, owl, bear and fox, and is a text book reference, adding a kind of diagram dimension to the woodland mandala. After all how could I leave out the library book images which taught me so much in the beginning of this project?

Adding depth

Cam warned us about the mandala appearing too flat, and taught us some tricks like using different transparencies and shadow effects. So I put these to use in my own mandala:

Firstly I filled two of the nest twigs with the cell pattern. As well as linking nicely to the outer layer, I hoped it would help to give the effect of the one twig laying over another by the viewer being able to differentiate between them.

And lastly I copied and skewed the shape of each animal, filling it with a lighter colour and applying a transparency effect.

But it needs something more

There's just not enough stuff on the mandala!
Which is why I came up with this twig, and by rotating and reflecting it I came up with some different ideas:

Those ones kind of look like antlers don't they? and the circle shape reminds me of a nest.

And every nest needs birdies!

Here is the nest formation applied to the mandala, plus some strategically placed birds. I think the twigs are effective in joining up the four animals and filling out the mandala. But the animals are still looking a bit lost and lonely against the neutral background.