These are some photos from the fall 2022 coat of arms team project.
For our Fall 2022 maker team project, we worked on designing a Coat of Arms that best represents our team. This semester my team consisted of Rich, Jeremy, Kyle, Cindy, and myself, and we were called the periwinkles. For our design, we thought about incorporating four different "houses" united by a symbol in the center. As a group, we incorporated orcas, the UT tower, some periwinkles, and a newton's cradle into our design. Individually, we each worked on our own separate design for the Coat of Arms so that, at the end, we could put it together. Each of the houses represent some form of nature that is either our spirit animal or best represents us individually. Cindy's design is an otter in the water, and Kyle's design is a racoon in a willow tree. Jeremy's design is a waterfall with kitten paws, and my design is a butterfly and a bee pollinating a flower. The centerpiece resembles flowers which can be used to represent infinity.
When we assembled all of our designs together, it seemed to be too complex for the embroidery software to read everything, and we had to simplify our design down so that the software could work with it. We decided to have this embroidered on a piece of fabric, and it took a while to embroider on the machine. I also tried to get this design on heat transfer vinyl, but the mat I was using was not sticky enough to hold the vinyl in place for the cutting.
I liked that we had two versions of this design, especially as a jpg. This would allow me to use it to embroider, laser cut, vinyl cut, etc. whenever I wanted to. The most tedious part of this design is its amount of detail, which could mess with the software prevent it from being accurately produced. I liked working on a project like this because it showcased our different perspectives on nature and tied it to making. Our saying was "Facere en nostra natura," which meant "Making is in our nature", and it was really cool to see everyone showcase their different perspectives on that saying. It definitely reinforces the fact that due to the different backgrounds that people come from, when we collaborate in maker spaces, we bring these diverse perspectives, and it allows us to learn from one another. Making an artifact is something that also represents us a person, and making allows us to honor that.
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