Hope Fletcher Portfolio
Jack Skellington Brought A Waterbottle To Austrailia
Maker Module Challenge
Jack Skellington Brought A Water Bottle To Australia
Present-Eating-Snake Backpack
Fabric Arts And Textiles
The prompt is pretty wild, the class jokingly came up with it without realizing that this is what we would be working on for the next five work days. The first idea I scribbled down was about Jack Skellington gifting Water Bottles to thirsty children in Australia for Christmas. My second sketch was Jack Skellington using Water Bottles to extinguish fires throughout Australia. The first idea made more sense for Jack Skellington's character, but I needed to turn it into something wearable rather than building a Water Bottle/ Lemonade stand.
Something iconic to The Nightmare Before Christmas for me is the Present-Eating-Snake that could fit anything into its mouth, so why not a Water Bottle? I transformed the Snake into a sack, like Santa's, and added a strap to make it wearable, the Water Bottle gifts would be inside. To incorporate more Australia into the design, I made sure to add as many lights as possible, because Australians have amazing Christmas lights. I also added an orange balloon, because Halloween is still new in Australia and not everyone celebrates it, the Australians with candy for Trick-Or-Treaters will leave an orange balloon in sight for them to know they have treats. As for the Circuit Playground Express Neopixels, shaking, pressing A, B, and both result in different color patterns.
Ideate
Test
Peer Review Feedback
Make it more visually appealing.
Make it look better.
Some of the stitching is showing.
I'd fill parts with stuffing and add a part of the button that can make a snake noise.
Making the bag look more like a fish.
Having the lights look like scales of a fish.
If it had more Jack skeleton.
More LEDs.
The stitching could be more precise.
Add australia to the backpack strap.
Hide the wires.
Add more colors.
Scores
Reflective Thinking
What did Peer Reviewers think could be improved on?
Multiple reviewers mention the sewing of the backpack showing and not being precise, this is because it's completely hand-sewed. If I sucked it up and stopped being so afraid of sewing machines, the stitching of the backpack wouldn't be an issue.
Someone thought that my clearly labeled Present-Eating-SNAKE would look better as... a fish?
One reviewer would like to see more Jack Skellington. My idea wasn't to make Jack Skellington himself, but something he would wear, although I could make that clear.
Another said writing Australia across the backpack strap further works towards the Australia part of the prompt, and I agree.
More reviews thought that more LEDs, more colors, and a button for a hissing noise would make it awesome, and once I found out how, I will make my backpack hiss.
How did I think my project could be improved?
To start, I think I improved in many ways from this Maker Challenge compared to the last one, the LEDify project. In both, I worked with LEDs and circuits, and now I've lit up even more LEDs, programmed them too, worked with a more complex circuit made with conductive thread, and hand-sewed an entire backpack designed by me. The Teach said that I would go a lot farther if I came up with a wild and crazy idea and failed, rather than a no-thought idea where I succeed. My crazy idea included a light-up Present-Eating-Snake backpack and a pumkin-shaped lemonade stand I wasn't sure I could make, and I got halfway there.
Both the peer reviewers and I believe that the biggest area of improvement for my project is in preciseness. Not only can the stitching be more precise, but also the length of each layer of the backpack- I completely forgot the black stripes and that changes the length. The change in widths is too noticeable, and the conductive thread and wires show. The final project is unprofessional, but it was made by a high schooler, it shouldn't be expected to be professional.
If I had more time, I would measure thrice, cut no more than twice, and what else rhymes? Precise. If I had more time, I said, but my Church Pastor, Ryan, told me this: "You always saying when I got more time, but you won't, cuz one day you gon' be dead, so you gotta make yourself time." When I first heard five days, I thought I would need to skip breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleep, quit my job, drop out of school, and work solely on the project in order to finish it in that time- that was an exaggeration. I had the time to put my best effort into making the backpack.
Throughout the days I had to work on this project, I had so much work in other classes, a full-time job, help running a Theatre production, and something very important to me: finishing Art and Writing pieces for the Scholastic Art Awards. Sadly, the deadline was approaching and I slowly began to realize that I wouldn't have the time to finish every piece because school, theatre, and work take up so much time. I had to tell myself to put what's most important to me first. In the last project, LEDify It, I learned that STEAM teaches me to persevere and grow from mistakes. In this Maker Challenge project, I learned to take breaks, focus and give my best on what's important, and still give my best even if it's not.