Project 1 Lost and Found

Object:My Grandfather’s pocket watch- A gift from my Grandmother (Nishra)

Description: 1.The Pocket watch was made of bronze colored metal that had darkened with time. 2.It was a circular watch, having size and thickness similar to an Oreo Biscuit. 3.It had a cover/lid that opened like a flip phonewith a metal push button on the top. The top further extended to an ornate loop around the button, which then was linked to a swivel hook key ring. The hinges that attached the lid and the watch were at the bottom, barely visible. 4.The lid was carved, and not completely solid. One could see through the carvings. It had a single flower with five or six outlined petals, and solid carved leaves coming out from betweenthe outlined petals. A thin ornate border outlined the flower and the circle of the lid, which then had ridges on the side. 5.The mechanism of the clock was encased in a glass. The actual watch had white background, and black hands, letters and numbers (in English). The hour and minute hands were simplelines with a decorative pointed loop at the end. The second’s hand was just a line. The font used looked cursive. ‘Quartz’ was written just above the 6 o’clock mark. 6.The back of the watch had engraved wreath and floral patterns.

Design Process

My partner Nishra's description is very detailed, she mentions all the mechanism of the watch and also the surface pattern on each side. At first I was pursued to code all the sides of the watch with real opening mechanism, while it’s been very challenging for me to make it possible at this stage, so I decided to choose the “open stage” of the pocket watch, which visually showed the clock. I think I can make the mechanism work after study p5js further.

This is the hand drawn sketch that I made for Nishra’s lost object. As you can see, the hinge mechanism is at the bottom of the watch, which is hidden in this position; and there is a hook on top of the watch, that is connected to the lid under the push button when the watch is closed. Above the hook, there is a swivel button, I believed that for adjusting the time; around the button, that’s a loop for attaching chain and other stuff. Nishra also mentions that the “Quartz” letter is cursive font, while right now I can only type the regular font in P5JS.

Reflection

Overall I really enjoy coding a pocket watch as my first coding assignment, although it’s much easier to sketch it by hand. I have experienced a lot of coding languages, such as translate, rotate etc. I think it’s been a good time for me to take through the whole coding process, it’s really different than 3D modeling or sketching. When I do 3D modeling, I’m like using all those designed tools to reach a goal, while coding is more like creating your own tool to approach the final result.