Special Carrier: Vinegar Bottle

7 min readOct 17, 2019

Corners

To practice manipulating corrugated cardboard, we were assigned to make three six-inch cubic corners using three different types of joiner. We were allowed to use adhesives and other foreign materials to bind the edges if we so desired. Although the open-endedness of this assignment was initially daunting to me, I decided to explore a form of joinery most familiar to me; the classic tab and flap.

My first attempt to make a cube corner relied on adhesive. I decided to to overlap with a triangle with the intention to disguise the extra material. next, I tried to move away from adhesives. I chose to use tabs and flaps. pretty standard but allowed me to get used to the material to move on to the next attempt. my following attempt was more exploratory it’s too long flaps interacting with each other. I found it challenging to create a pleasing relationship between the two tabs but also make the corner secure.

Ultimately this project allowed me to get familiar good ways to manipulate cardboard to maintain structural integrity, to make it flexible, twofold, to tuck, when to cut precisely.

Object Recreation

After creating the cubes, I began replicating my vinegar bottle. Due to the natural curvature of my object, I had to figure out how to take a flat plane of the stiff cardboard and warp it as I wanted it to. To begin tackling this, I broke apart my object into three distinct shapes. First the cylindrical base. Secondly, the conical transition point between the base and the neck. And thirdly, the squashed cylinder that was the neck.

I first measured all the dimensions of my vinegar bottle with a measuring tape. This allowed me to unroll the planes of my object into flat, cuttable pieces. I began cutting the rectangle that would become the base cylinder. I discovered although I had scored the material (cut through only one of the two layers of the corrugated cardboard), it was difficult to roll the board with a smooth finish. After some fiddling around, I found that if I squished down the edges of each scored slice, I could generate more space for each slice to move. This allowed me to roll my base inwards and have a smooth finish for the outside of my bottle.

Next, I struggled with figuring out how to create the cone shape of my second piece, the transition cone, out of cardboard. At Tate’s recommendation, I used an online truncated cone generator to break apart my cones into flat planes. After printing out my proportionally correct flat cone blueprints, I was able to score it just as I had with the cylindrical part of my bottle.

Thirdly, I moved onto the neck of my vinegar bottle. This neck has a distinct shape, as if two cones were stackd on top of each other. I wanted to play with a new method of achieving this shape, so I took an approach that resembles the process of creating a paper lantern. Lastly I created a lid from a basic cylinder shape with a circle on top.

Since a defining feature of my object is its heaviness, for this dummy I had to simulate weight. I gathered some rocks from outside, Saran Wrapped them together so they would not jiggle around, and stuffed them inside my model.

PROTOTYPE 1

I began this process by observing my vinegar bottle to better understand the form, the way people interact with my form, and the way that the form is used within a culture. I then created some basic sketches of some initial rudimentary concepts.

I found it difficult to keep the ball rolling, since it was initially hard to take any of my ideas seriously. in the hopes that beginning crafting with spark more ideas, I pursued buy banana sketch.

As this form came into fruition, it was difficult to remember why I had chosen the design features I had. I played with the shape and you thought about potential interactions I could have with my form, but much to my dismay, ultimately missing the point.

PROTOTYPE 2

After my initial exploration of how the cardboard could potentially relate to my vinegar bottle, I refocused my aim to the goal of the project with the following question: How would a person bring this vinegar bottle to a dinner party?

I found it quite difficult to understand the cultural significance of vinegar within the context of a dinner party. Due to the fact that I was conceptually stumped, I talked to Stacie about my initial prototype. She helped me better understand the defining characteristics of my item; sleek, elegant, simple. She also let me know that in the context of this assignment, I could interpret the cultural role of my vinegar bottle to match that of a wine bottle.

While brainstorming how I could honor the characteristics Stacie helped me identify, I began to think about how one usually presents or holds a bottle.

I consistently returned to the idea of a watier at a restaurant graciously yet proudly presenting a bottle of wine to two guests anticipating delight. The part about this interaction that I find inspiring is the angle that wine bottles are held at when presented in this manner. The moderate tilt subtly does a handful of things — it captures the attention of the viewer as it is presented at a clear height, the customer is able to understand the form of the bottle, and also this mannerism is a welcoming gesture and one that implies there is a recipient to such a presentation.

I was interested in how a simple tilt of a bottle could transform its significance from static and utilitarian, to demanding widespread attention and care for detail. I decided to embrace this idea and apply it to my project to hopefully replicate some of the weight of this kind of exchange.

I first tried to manually understand how my bottle would intersect with planes of cardboard, I grew overwhelmed by the incalculable nature of guess and check.

This problem prompted me to attempt 3D modeling by object so I could manipulate it much more easily. also, once I had manipulated the way that d planes intersected with the bottle, I was able to print out the shapes of intersection so I could much more accurately understand this intersection.

While translating this digital rendering into physical form, I found it difficult to cut the circles accurately.

PROTOTYPE 3

Speed-dating Critique

Through a rapid fire speed-dating critique session, I received feedback from users that had never seen my carrier before. While I heard generally positive things about the angle of the presentation and the concept, it was widely agreed upon that removing the bottle from the packaging was unintuitive and cumbersome. Some people also told me that the

I also received some critiques of the form of my prototype

PROTOTYPE 4

Mini prototypes helped me test out new concepts fairly easily. This project made me aware of the