Nature and Form II

As a part of my nature and form course, we were supposed to choose a natural form i.e., animal, fruit, vegetable, insects, etc, and explore its form in various mediums.

I decided to choose garlic. Garlic (Allium Sativa)is a plant in the onion family (allium) that’s grown for its distinctive taste and health benefits. It contains a wide range of trace minerals-copper, iron, zinc, magnesium, germanium, and selenium, which are believed to bring some health benefits.

One of the main reasons for choosing garlic was that I don’t particularly cook at home, but I’ve been put on garlic peeling duty since an early age while my mum makes dinner. It’s come to a point where whenever I am home, I mechanically pick up the garlic basket and start peeling garlic when it’s time to make dinner.

Through this course, I wanted to explore the form of garlic, an object that I have been so familiar with over the years, in a possibly different light. To start with the explorations, I first decided to start with some rough sketches-

At my home, we usually buy garlic by the kilo from the market. It is pretty long-lasting and remains fresh for months at times. It doesn’t particularly need to be stored in some separate special packaging as such, given that it has its own natural packaging which is papery in texture.

To explore more of its features, I sketched out the various parts of a garlic plant and tried to record the growth process of a garlic plant from clove to a bulb.

a clove of garlic has to be first planted into the soil

the clove planted in the soil starts growing leaves and later form the umbel capsule

the umbel capsule slowly starts blooming and from within it, the bulbis and flowers start growing

once the bulbis is fully bloomed, the bulbis start growing. These bulbis later become individual garlic bulbs.

After having sketched and analyzed the growth process of a garlic bulb, I realized that the form has both- individualistic and united characteristics, given that a garlic plant can be grown from a single clove of garlic which later grows into several garlic bulbs, which is usually seen as one whole unit.

While searching about a garlic clove’s growth process, I also found out that garlic is known as a stinking rose (it has a strong smell that could be considered pungent) and is a member of the lily family!

While sketching out our chosen forms we needed to list down the key attributes that best defined the form. Here are the key attributes of the form of garlic-

• bulbous
• sectioned
• bottom heavy
• united

Next, we were supposed to make 3d models of our chosen forms through various materials. This was done to understand the form better as well as to understand material constraints. Below are some of my explorations-

I started by making a thermocol 2:1 one model. I had a 2 cm thick thermocol sheet lying around. I stacked up thermocol pieces and stuck them together with glue to get a desirable size block of thermocol. Next, I started with the process of subtraction and started carving off the thermocol block with a cutter to get my final form.

The thermocol I used was of rather low density due to which the outcome is not as clean as I would have preferred :/

Next, I made some models with the help of wire, paper, and thread. Here I tried to show individual garlic cloves as well as the papery garlic covering. I also tried to play around a bit with light and shadow to show a whole garlic bulb.

In this model, I tried to use single pieces of wire to make a garlic bulb instead of clumping together the individual pods as it was making the overall form too crowded.

In this model, I tried to give it structure by covering the hollow spaces left by the wire structure with tissue paper

I also made a model based on a polyhedron five-part puzzle we had explored during our geometric constructions during foundation. Here, I divided the solid into nine equal parts to make it resemble the form of garlic (though a clove of garlic doesn’t necessarily have five cloves, it depends upon the breed). In the end, I stuck together 7 parts and left 3 parts unstuck to show loose garlic pods.

this model has been made with paper and I tried to show an abstraction of the chosen form

another exploration of the paper model

The next step was to design concepts for either a lamp or a teapot while taking inspiration from our chosen forms.

Here are a few of my explorations for a tea kettle-

Here I was mostly trying to change the orientation of the garlic bulb as opposed to usually viewed by keeping my ideations tilted instead of the usual standing position to give it a softer and more flowy look. I tried out variations with an entire bulb as well as a single garlic clove.

next, I sketched out ideations for the lamp. I started with some extremely rough sketches, trying to show that the form is sectioned and initially my thought process was that I will make a lamp that would be sectioned and each piece would be detachable and could be used as an individual light source but while doing so the form was coming out rather basic so I started exploring more.

After the ideation process, the next step was to do 3D modeling and renders. Initially, in my concept drawings for the lamp, I realized I was focusing more upon its functionality- how to switch it on, reduce the light focus, etc., than upon the form of the garlic bulb.

So, I took a step back and revisited the key attributes I had stated in the beginning about the form of a garlic bulb. they were bulbous, sectioned, bottom-heavy and, united.

I first started by exploring a very basic and took a rather direct approach. This particular model was inspired by the paper models that I’d previously made. There wasn’t a lot happening visually and the form seemed very stagnant and boring.

After making the above model, I decided to take a very different approach. Here I tried to club together the words sectioned and united.

In the next exploration, I played around with surfaces in SolidWorks software and arrived at this final form which is one whole unit but gives the viewer the feeling of it being sectioned.

The final form of my garlic-inspired lamp is soft yet sophisticated. It is a centerpiece ceiling lamp. The contrast created by the gold and silver colors gives it a very warm cozy vibe. I decided to make it a two-tone lamp to make it look lighter.