Festival of Fast Making Reflection

The Festival of Fast Making was a challenging brief for me. Only a few days before the final presentation, I realised I did not quite understand the purpose of the brief. I had a few initial ideas that fit the brief; the bedside table, the whisk handle, surfboard fins, surfboard fin moulding table, and the wooden bowl lamp. Coming from carpentry and having the technical skills to be able to make these things, I wanted to present with all of these projects completely finished. I somehow missed the fact that the purpose of the brief was to explore and play with new ideas of making, not to show up with finished objects. Looking back, I should have re-read the brief multiple times throughout the making process to ensure I understood the brief itself. I found myself trying to make things just to meet the requirements of the brief rather than playing and being excited about what I was making. The feelings of trying to meet a quota is not what I am in this course for and I created a making process that put myself into this situation. In the future, I will ensure I take the time to ask questions and have a full understanding of the brief so I can approach the making from a process/curious based approach.

I found a lot of my cohort’s objects very interesting and inspiring. A lot of my peers seemed to have played with different themes and seeing their work really opened my eyes to what it means to approach making from a process based approach.