Final map project

For this final project I wanted to continue exploring new mediums - I aimed to disintegrate the line between art and function by creating pieces I could use in my everyday life.

Building off the work from my last project, which focused on the wrappers I had acquired throughout the week, I dove deeper into the collection of trinkets and trash that I have accumulated over the years. I don't really have an explanation for why I keep so many of these random things, but part of their value lies in reviving old memories. I find these arbitrary items tend to recall realistic and mundane days which can be more comforting than the flashy important days we are told to never forget. Something about their irrelevance, other than the value I place upon them, is much less stressful than traditional keepsakes; these objects are much more transient. I keep as much as I can, but their permanence in my life is not guaranteed. Since they are not objects that I am told to treasure forever, such as a class ring, the way they move in and out of my life is a fact I have accepted rather than something to stress over. They act as my personal archive since many of the memories that go along with them would have been lost to time in my mind - an archive that is becoming more and more important as it becomes clear to me that my memory is quite unreliable. Using these found objects as my subject. I have created a map of my various trips, homes, and milestones.

Each found object was wrapped in metal and soldered by hand into a functional charm. Below are the images and descriptions of each of these charms in chronological order of their addition to my forever growing collection of literal garbage.

Charm 1: shard from broken bottle

• Collected January 21, 2020: 1232PM. Broken bottle, second floor north wing Kahn communal bathroom, Oberlin OH

• This small piece of glass is from the first set of shards that I ever saved. Me and my roommate at the time decided to break a glass bottle so I could make earrings out of the pieces, and I have saved the unused shards ever since. A piece of the label from the class bottle is still visible in this charm.

Charm 2:

• Collected September 20, 2020. Abandoned reservoir, Cobbs Hill Park, Rochester NY

• This iridescent piece of class was collected from the littered floor of an abandoned reservoir. Me and my friends came across the location on one of our walks through the woods when we lived together in an airbnb for Fall semester of 2021. I do not know where the iridescent nature of this piece came from. I held onto this piece until December when I received my soldering iron, made this piece, and wore it for quite a few months on and off (see wear and tear).

Charm 3:

• Collected sometime between Christmas 2020 and March 2021. Unknown origin.

• This piece of glass was from the same set that made up my first soldered pieces of jewelry. I am not sure when exactly I made it and have no recollection of where I got the pieces from, but I was gifted my soldering materials in December 2020 and recall having some pieces complete by my birthday in 2021 so I know this shard is from sometime within that time-frame.

Charm 4:

• Collected early summer semester 2021. Broken porch window pane, Oberlin OH

• This long piece of glass comes from a large windowpane of a village campus house that had shattered on the front porch. My friend who lived there let me know and I collected a large amount of shards for future projects. There is a crack that runs across this piece that appeared when I soldered it with high heat.

Charm 5:

• Collected September 4, 2021: around 8PM. Broken side view mirror of a street parked car, West Chippewa St, Buffalo NY

• This mirror shard was collected from a side view mirror that had shattered. Me and Ish noticed the glass on the floor as we were exploring the city following our dinner at the world renowned TGI Fridays. This set of mirror shards are the only ones I have collected to date. Many of them have long cracks that span the pieces, as seen in this specific charm. I wore a necklace made from the same set of mirrors during the winter of 2022, but lost it the night of March 4th, 2022.

Charm 6:

• Collected November 9, 2021: around 4:30PM. Abandoned house along Quarry Rd, Oberlin OH.

• This small light bulb was collected from a junk drawer in an abandoned house near campus. I biked there with Biba and Greer for one of their photo projects. This piece is the first time I have successfully soldered anything other than a piece of glass into a proper charm.