design process – To Kiss or not to Kiss

One more turn around the sun

Dutch Design Week 2018. It’s already been one year! It all goes so fast! A year ago, To Kiss or Not to Kiss participated in this design event in collaboration with the Innovation Networks Lectorate from The Hague University of

28/11/2017 Design / Dutch Design Week / Education / Inspiration / Kissing / Multicultiralism / Tradition / Uncategorized

To Kiss or Not To Kiss at the Dutch Design Week 2017, An unexpected and rewarding impact.

Dutch Design Week is busy. We all know that. But that we would be stormed by people with questions, remarks and suggestions in this way is something we didn’t see coming. And we loved it. The months of hard work

25/10/2017 Collaboration / communication / Design / Design Process / Education / Inspiration / Kissing / Multicultiralism / samples / Tradition / Uncategorized

Diversity is sweet!

The richness of cultural diversity can be expressed in different types of souvenirs. As an opportunity to expand this idea, Aliana Bertolo one of my students at IDE/Open Innovator took the challenge to explore how she could express multiculturalism through

01/10/2017 Collaboration / Design / Design Process / Education / Inspiration / Multicultiralism / samples / Uncategorized

Pop-up Plans

The project is expanding in interesting directions. Through the co-creation sessions I met Anja Overdiek who works as a senior researcher at the Innovation Networks Lectorate of The Hague University of Applied Sciences. After a couple of inspiring conversations Anja

28/05/2017 Collaboration / communication / Design Process / Inspiration / Multicultiralism / Uncategorized

Co-Creating

While the Chinese kissing couple was in the glazing process, I thought it would be a valuable opportunity to involve a multidisciplinary and multicultural group of students in the project. In agreement with the IDE-Open Innovator program managers I organized

28/05/2017 China / Clay Models / Design Process / Garment / Multicultiralism / Tradition / Uncategorized

What has been happening?

It has been a while since the last time I posted something about this project. Apart from being busy with work and my own education, my approach to this project has been to take it one step at a time

04/09/2016 China / Clay Models / Design Process

First out of twenty

In July I signed up to a course at Dutch Molds to start with the first steps towards making complex plaster molds. Piet van der Sluis is the owner of Dutch Molds in Amsterdam. He has been making molds for

13/07/2016 China / Clay Models / Design Process

Exploring plaster mold-making

In the past few weeks I continued with my quest to search for production alternatives of plaster molds to make the kissing couples in The Netherlands. The purpose is to reduce initial production costs as much as possible. I already

17/04/2016 3D scanning and printing / Clay Models / Collaboration / Design Process / samples / Uncategorized

3D thinking

As we all know 3D printing has been growing and progressing in leaps and bounds in the past years. I was curious to find if it would be an option to 3D print this souvenir in porcelain at the famous

17/04/2016 Clay Models / Collaboration / Design Process / Inspiration / samples

The efforts it costs to get a cost price

Next to exploring stories about cultural similarities or differences in the multicultural Holland, finding out about the design – and the production process for it – has been challenging. One of the main purposes of this project is that the

03/04/2016 China / Garment / Kissing / Knowledge / Multicultiralism / Tradition

Liv. From the country with too much history.

Working on the ‘Chinese Kissing couple’ has been a journey that is making me learn many aspects of this country and Chinese people. What I find most relevant are the small things that during different conversations have slapped my assumptions

13/02/2016 Clay Models / Design Process / samples / Tradition

From mold to final model

This project has its own pace and a mindful decision making process. Many proposals and ideas for the ‘making of ’ possibilities have agitated my creative mind up to the point of wanting to make this pieces of 180 cms

01/02/2016 China / Clay Models / Design Process

China: Work in progress

I have been working on the Chinese female. The shape is almost ready and I have started to create the Chinese male so I will have the first couple ready soon. I will combine this process with a visit to

08/11/2015 Design Process / Inspiration

Video Production and Brand Design

Jokaland Inspirations (Hemang and Suive) is a Photography and video company who have kindly put their time and knowledge on the creation of the introduction video to this project. We brainstormed and discussed about all ideas in a few sessions. I

30/10/2015 Clay Models / Design Process / First steps / samples

Discovering Form

It is time to start the design production of the larger pieces. The new models of the couples will be 35 cms high. This is a size that works well for me and easy transport too. I am using plastiline

15/10/2015 China / Design Process / Garment / Textiles / Tradition

Qipao or Cheongsam- Chinese female traditional garment.

As I mentioned in a previous post, visiting TRC-Leiden has been like finding the Holy Grail. Thanks to Dr. Gillian Vogelsand- Eastwood I met with Christopher Ng, who is a collector of Chinese and South East Asian textiles and garments.

25/09/2015 Collaboration / Design Process / Textiles / Tradition / Treasures / Uncategorized

Leiden’s hidden treasure

When I visited the National Museum of Ethnology, I discovered that my next visit should be the Textile Research Center in Leiden. A few weeks later I visited this amazing place which to me has been very valuable for the

13/03/2015 Clay Models / First steps

Shrink gracefully…

Still working on the model making process; as I previously mentioned, the modeling clay I’ve used shrinks when it dries. For design purposes it is important to have some control that both pieces (male and female) shrink proportionately, so that

09/02/2015 Clay Models / First steps / Turkey

Hands-on, new rough sketches.

Making the first models was good to gain experience on how to work with modeling clay (the one that hardens up). This clay is not so user friendly, it shrinks while it dries and this leaves a rough texture. This