R Research

The work of designer-

makers like Nuala and
Sarah are often on show
at the Crafts Council in
London. You can find
out what’s on in the
exhibitions there and
around the country by
visiting their website at
www.Crafts council.org.
uk.
The Crafts Council
Click Here for The Craft Council Home Page
The Crafts Council promotes the contemporary crafts in Great Britain.
It is an independent organisation funded by government and provides
services to craftspeople and the public.
The Crafts Council premises in London provides a craft gallery,
reference library, photo library, shop and café.
The Crafts Council is based at
44a Pentonville Road,
Islington, London N1 9BY
Telephone: +44 (020) 7278 7700
Fax+44 (020) 8376891
Free admission
Tuesday to Saturday 11 – 6;
Sunday 2–6; Closed Monday.
All public areas of the Council are accessible by wheelchair.
Transport
Just five minutes from Angel underground station.
Bus routes 4, 19, 30, 38, 43, X43, 56, 73, 153, 171a, 214

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Making jewellery 1
P Pause for thought
Many designer-makers earn their living through
making attractive, innovative jewellery. Some use
Think about the making skills that you already have.
everyday materials and objects in an unusual way
and it is this that makes the jewellery attractive. Here
are two examples.

Sarah Crawford
Sarah Crawford makes brooches by combining
toothbrushes and toy parts with small prizes taken
from Christmas crackers. The resulting jewellery
is colourful and amusing. Don’t be deceived into
thinking this is an easy option. It would be very
easy for the brooches to look dreadful. But they
don’t. They are bright, cheerful and fun; not to be
taken too seriously and suitable for everyday wear.
Although the skills used to cut the brush to size and
assemble the parts are not complex in themselves,
Sarah always carried them out with care and
precision. The results speak for themselves.
Not as easy as it looks

1
Nuala Jamison
Nuala Jamison often uses clear acrylic sheet to make
jewellery. In this first example she has used simple
geometric shapes and given the acrylic colour by
dyeing it. Notice that the dye has not covered all the
acrylic; there are colourless blobs. She achieved this
by using blobs of Blutak®, to prevent the dye touching
the plastic.
Q Question
Make a list of everyday items that you think could
be used as the basis for jewellery. For each
item draw a quick sketch showing what sort of
jewellery it could be made into.

Simple but effective

In this second example she has again used acrylic

sheet; this time to make lots of discs which she
has threaded onto a thin PVC tube – just like the
PVC tube you use in some science or design and
technology lessons. The result looks good because
P Pause for thought
she has taken lots of care to finish the edges of the Have you got the making skills necessary to
discs so that they are very smooth and to ensure that produce work like Sarah or Nuala?
the surfaces of the discs are scratch free.

Almost snakelike

3
 R Research

1 Visit a large department store and see how

many different forms of display you can find.

2 Make a brief sketch of each.

3 Use the following labels to show how each

display works as a structure:

• beam;
• cantilever;
• strut;
• tie:
• column;
• panel.

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4

On display 2
Have you ever looked in the window of a jeweller’s P Pause for thought
shop? There, on display, are dozens of precious
items – rings, bracelets, necklaces, watches. The Why do you think many jewellers remove their
pictures below show ways in which these items are window displays at night?
presented. Often the jeweller arranges for small
spotlights to shine on particularly precious items.

On display in a jewellers

1
Shops which sell stationery items have an interesting
display problem. Lots and lots of quite small items
– pens, pencils, rulers, rubbers, paper clips, paper
fasteners, drawing pins, tie-on labels, stick-on labels,
staples, string, adhesive tapes; the list is almost
endless. Yet they usually manage to show all these
items so that the customer can see what they want
and get it without disturbing all the other items. How
do they do it? Put the small items in a package
that can be hung on a hook and arrange the hooks
sensibly as shown in the picture on the right.

A display system for tiny items

2

Q Question
Discuss with a partner the way that the following
items are displayed in shops:

• trainers;

• t-shirts;

• CDs;

• china ornaments;

• cosmetics.

For each item, describe how it is displayed and

explain why this particular method is used.

Sunglasses are often displayed in chemists shops

on rotating stands. The glasses fit neatly into slots
but are easy to remove and replace. There is usually
a mirror at the top of the stand so that customers
can see how they look wearing the sunglasses. A
four-sided stand takes up much less room than if the
glasses were displayed flat against a wall.
Looking cool on display

3
 Q Question Q
Question

3 Consider the advantages and disadvantages of 4 Do you think netting has more advantages
enclosing food products in netting or thin sheet than thin sheeting? If it has, how could we
materials. Are they both: encourage its use?

• eco-friendly?
• reusable?
• recyclable?
• porous (able to absorb water, air or other
fluids)?
• visible?
• attractive?
• cheap?
• waterproof?

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Netting 3
Nets are often associated with fishing where they The mesh can vary in size from microscopic to
are used to catch fish. They are constructed from an centimetres wide, depending on its use.
open-meshed fabric so that the water runs out and
the fish are held in the net. In fishing a wide range of
netting is used.

P Pause for thought

Why do you think the size of the mesh is

important?

Netting is used in tea-strainers

and hair-nets, in personal survival
nets and bags for nuts. What is it,
and why do we use it?

Netting is an open-meshed material

twisted, woven, knotted or welded together at regular
intervals. It can be made from natural or synthetic
material, it can be hand knitted or machine knitted.

1
 P Pause for thought

Look at the picture showing work

on a building site. It includes many
examples of the use of netting. Why
is netting used rather than another
material?

R Research

The netting used on a building site must be very

strong and hard-wearing. Each knot or join must
be strong. Look at the knots or joins used in
sports netting in your school. What are the knots
like? What material is the netting made from?

Q Question

1 Supermarkets use netting a lot. When Kim

Q Question
was researching netting she produced an
alphabetical list of its uses. Can you add
2 Do you think she got anything wrong?
anything to Kim’s A-Z of Netting:
If so, explain why.

3
 P
R
Pause for thought
Research
Tomato is the most popular flavour of tinned Do you like soup? What is your favourite flavour?
soup. Why do you think that is? Is it the most How often do you eat it? Would you say it is a
popular flavour in your class? You can find out snack or a meal?
like this. Copy out the table below. Working in a
group of six complete the table.

Personal Do you like Which is your When do Which of the following sorts do you eat?
soup? favourite you eat it?
flavour? homemade tinned dried chilled carton

A: You

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Soup beautiful soup 4

New Covent Garden Soup Company

The New Covent Garden Soup Company was set

up to manufacture soup that is as good as home-
made, prepared with only natural ingredients with no
preservatives, colourings or additives. The patented
production process is unique and took two years
to develop! The ideas for the first 30 types of soup
initially came from employees, and were primarily
vegetable. They were cooked as samples and
modified until the recipe pleased most people. Now
the company has extended its range to include meat
and fish. The ‘home-made’, all-year-round range is
complemented by summer and winter specials that
are based on seasonal vegetables. The company
also makes a soup-of-the-month, a clever idea to
introduce new and unusual flavours to the market.

The label is stuck on so the basic carton can be used for

any type of soup

1
Scale of production
Developing a recipe for home-made soup that works
Q Question
in the kitchen is one thing – manufacturing soups on
The New Covent Garden Soup Company uses
a large scale is another!
the following ingredients for their white bean
with tomato and sage soup:

water, tomatoes, white beans, milk, cream,

onions, tomato puree, vegetable stock,
butter, brown sugar, sage, salt, garlic.

For each of these ingredients suggest a quality

assurance procedure that could be carried out
to ensure that it is suitable for use in bulk soup
production.

2 Scale makes a difference

To assure the quality of its produce the New Covent

Garden Soup Company monitors the quality of the
starting ingredients, the preparation, weighing and
preliminary cooking of those ingredients, the cooking
of the soup, and the filling, sealing and data stamping
of the cartons.

The soup is cooked in large sealed tanks. The

partially cooked ingredients are transferred to the
tanks and extra milk and cream are then pumped into
the tank through pipes. The total amount of these
ingredients and their rate of addition can be carefully
controlled. Steam is passed into the tank to heat
the ingredients, and air is pumped in to aerate and
agitate them. The pressure and temperature within
the tank are monitored and kept within strict limits as
is the weight of the mixture in the tank.

The exact details of the process are a carefully

guarded industrial secret, but clearly it requires a
sophisticated automated manufacturing system that
senses and controls weight, pressure, temperature
and time. The system uses computer control and
operators can check on progress and on the cooking
conditions by information presented on monitors.

3
Q How will the robot detect mines?
The Shadow Robot Project team have not come up
with all the answers yet, but they are moving towards
dealing with the questions and designing sub-

A There are many possibilities, here are just four:

• metal detection;
systems that will fit together to give an affordable and
effective solution.

• infra-red or thermal imaging;

• ground penetrating radar; R Research
• florescent bacteria that glow in the dark in
the presence of explosive vapours. If you want to know more
about the development of the
Shadow Robot you can look at
this website:
www-shadow-org.uk

You can find out more about

the landmine problem and the
work being done to solve it by
looking at this United Nations
website:
www.un.org/ Depts/Landmine/

Artist’s impression of a Robot Landmine Clearer

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Hidden killers 5
It’s very easy to plant landmines. Soldiers just throw
them out of a helicopter or put them down and walk P Pause for thought
away. Of course they roughly know where the mines
are and mark it on a map. After wars are over, the How would you feel if one of your friends had a leg
maps are lost and people return to the area to rebuild blown off coming to school during a game of chase?
their lives, only to find that the countryside that was
once safe is now deadly. This is a world-wide problem.

The estimated numbers of landmines in different parts of the worlds

Region Estimated number of landmines

Africa 11,310,000

Asia 22,975,000

Europe 2,876,842

Latin America 194,000

Middle East 49,474,988

Total 86,830,830

1

An image that everyone understands
2
One project is to design and build a mine-detecting
robot. The team tackling this task are working in
London. Here is a list of some of the things they are
thinking about.
Q What sort of search pattern will be required to
make sure nothing is missed?
A The robot will move in a zigzag backwards and
forwards across a search strip about six metres
wide.
Q How will the robot move?
The robot will move using eight legs, like a
A spider, with each leg being powered by four
‘muscles’ that use compressed air.
Q How will the robot control itself?
Each leg will have sensors to help keep the
A
body of the robot level across uneven ground.
The movement of legs will be co-ordinated so
that the robot can walk. The central computer
will use the information from the sensors and
a ground pointing camera to decide on the
direction of walking.
3
There are two approaches to preventing people from
getting hurt. The first is the educational approach.
Through broadcasting and posters people, especially
children, are warned about the dangers. People who
work for the United Nations, charities and government
officials committed to de-mining, visit the areas
affected giving talks and providing information that
warn about the dangers and show people how to
avoid getting hurt. They also make arrangements
for the people to tell professional de-miners about
accidents that have happened. This gives the de-
miners some of the information they need for the
second approach – clearing the mines. This is of
course a very dangerous business. First the mines
have to be found and then they have to be made
safe or destroyed. Of course, it is no good finding just
some of the mines in an area. All the mines have to
be detected and removed for an area to be safe. This
involves very detailed searching by careful digging
and using mine detectors. Mines are often hidden
in vegetation and many of them are quite small so
vegetation has to be cleared away before searching
can begin. This is very dangerous and so this is
where the Shadow Robot Project comes in.
Q How will the robot be controlled by the
de-miners?
A
The de-miners will be able to use a radio
control system.
Q What energy source will the robot use?
A
This will be mixed: petrol or diesel for a
generator and a compressor, plus a back up
battery.
Q How will the robot protect itself?
A
In four ways:
• low ground weight, less than 5 kg per leg
so that it is unlikely to set off a mine;
• leg weakness, so that if a mine is set off
the leg breaks without flipping the robot;
the leg can be easily replaced with local
materials;
• layout so that heavier and cheaper parts
are placed to the sides protecting the
expensive sensors from sideways blast
and shrapnel;
• lightweight plastic armour to protect the
air muscles.
• limited artificial intelligence so that they appear
to be alive and responsive to people. Furbys are
programmed to adapt to their environment, for
example their response to a stimulus is not always
the same;
• Furbish – the language that Furbys speak when
first turned on. Each Furby comes with an English
– Furbish dictionary, knows about 200 words and
can say around 800 phrases;
• the apparent ability to learn English as time goes by;
• games that Furbys can play with humans, such as
hide-and-seek;
• the ability to interact with other Furbys, for example
by playing games or responding to their ‘emotions’,
so that owners will want more than one;
• individuality; each Furby had its own name and there
are hundreds of different styles made up of foot, eye,
beak and ear colours, fur style and hair style;
• ‘Easter eggs’; these are undocumented behaviour.
For example you can give a Furby hiccoughs by
giving it the right sequence of prompts.
There are plans for new generations of Furby with, for
example, more actions or a wider vocabulary.
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Furbys 6
Background
There is a long history of people using advanced
technology to create toys that are amazing, or at least
that seem so at the time. For example, over a quarter
of a millennium ago (in 1738) Jacques de Vaucanson
made a duck that could walk, flap its wings, chew
and swallow food and even excrete it again. Since
that time the quality and ability of toys has improved
as technology advances (although dolls that wet
themselves still seem to be popular!).
In the last 50 years toys have
begun to include electronic
elements. More recently they
have started to make use
of computer technology by
incorporating micro-controllers.
A virtual pet – designed like a computer game
1
A myth
New Furbys speak Furbish, gradually speaking more
and more English over their first few weeks of life.
This has lead some people to believe that they have
the ability to understand and learn English just like a
young child.
Language learning is, however, an artificial
intelligence ability that requires much more computer
power than a Furby has. In fact, if you refuse to speak
to a new Furby and just stimulate it in other ways,
it will still ‘learn’ English. Furbys in countries where
English is not spoken still end up speaking English.
Despite this, the USA’s National Security Agency has
banned workers from bringing Furbys to the office for
feat that they will record and repeat state secrets.
R Research
Find out more about the way a Furby works by
looking at the Furby Autopsy website:
www.phobe.com/furby
Other websites have information on Furbys. Try to
find them and compare the information they give
with that on the autopsy website.
P Pause for thought
Why do people want toys that move?
Q Question
1 Make a list of toys that you think include
electronic elements.
2 Pick from this list the ones which you think
are probably computer controlled. How do
you decide that a toy might have a micro-
controller in it?
In the mid-1990s virtual pets were popular with So how does a Furby work?
children but one toy designer was not satisfied
with them. Dave Hampton, a skilled hardware and Under the fur it is a simple
software engineer who lives in the Californian robot and, like any other
wilderness, liked the idea of an intelligent toy pet but computer-based system, it
says, ‘I wanted a cuddly, loving little thing’. has a set of inputs (senses),
a set of outputs (muscles)
As a result of Dave’s dissatisfaction, in the Autumn of and, between them, some
1998 a new toy was launched, ‘The Furby’, 13 cm of processing power (the nervous
fur with gremlin ears, big eyes, a beak and the ability to system).
move them as well as to talk and bounce up and down.
On top of all this, the Furby can respond to touch, light The main inputs are:

• a switch on the back

to detect stroking and
petting;

• a switch on the
tummy to detect
tickling;
and,
perhaps • a switch on its tongue
most to detect feeding;
radically of
all, other • a tilt switch so it knows
Furbys. when it is upside down;

A Furby; designed like a cuddly toy Naked Furby – what Furby looks like under the fur
2

• a light sensor between its eyes so it can tell when

it is dark;
• a microphone through which it detects sounds.
It also has some internal switches that allow the micro-
controller to monitor the position of its various outputs.
The main outputs are:
• a reversible motor that controls: the eyelids, the mouth
opening and closing, the ears, the jumping motion;
• a loudspeaker through which it speaks;
• an infra-red sender so that it can ‘speak’ to other
Furbys.
The control of the outputs is a cunning mixture of
computer and mechanical control with at least two
custom chips (one being a micro-controller) but just
one motor to control all of the movements. This keeps
the cost and size down, since motors are nearly as
expensive as micro-controllers but are bulkier and
use more battery power.
Q Question
3 Here are some of the combinations of motion of
just two of a Furby’s outputs:
• the mouth can open and dose while the eyes are
shut;
• the mouth can open and close while the eyes
are open;
• the eyes can open and close while the mouth is
shut;
• the eyes can open and close while the mouth is open;
• the mouth and eyes can open and close
together.
Can you think of other possibilities?
4 Try to design a pair of cams that could control
the eyes and the mouth of a toy in the way
described. Remember that the motor can be
reversed and controlled quite accurately.

The motor controls each movement through a cam.

By careful design of the shape of these cams and Marketing Furby
precise control of the motor, each motion appears to be
The makers of Furby want to make sure that they
independent. There are about 300 unique combinations
remain popular toys for some years. As well as
of ear, eye, mouth and jump movements.
designing them to be cute they have included:

3
John’s bedroom
John’s hobby was dungeons & dragons, so he used
a fantasy dragon theme to decorate his bedroom.
He printed the designs on the bedcover and
curtains and painted dragons on the wall.

Q Question

4 What theme would you choose for your

bedroom? What images would you use to
decorate the walls and furnishings?

A fantasy theme for a bedroom

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Interior design 7
Things to consider
An interior designer’s job is to enable us to live and work
in places that are comfortable, attractive and functional.
The designer of this office had to think about:

• what people use the room and what they need to

do;
• the shape and size of the room;
• the availability of gas, electricity and water;
• the positions of doors and windows;
• the furniture and how to arrange it; Office design should ensure that everyone can do their job
in comfort
• any special equipment and where to put it;
• the colour scheme and lighting;
• furnishings that could add comfort and decoration; Q Question
• final touches to make it attractive
1 Would you like to work in this office? What do
• any legal requirements. you find attractive or unattractive about it?

1
 Tackling the task
Using plans
Interior designers use plans to help them make design
decisions. A basic plan shows the position of the walls,
doors, windows and electricity, gas and water points.
The plan can also show which way the room is facing
and how much natural light it will receive.

Card cut-outs will help the designer try out different

arrangements of furniture and equipment and think
about the advantages and disadvantages of each
layout. The layouts will also show how people and
materials might move around or through the room.

Using drawings
To help decide on the colour scheme and furnishings the
interior designer draws a perspective view of the room
and tries out different colours and decoration schemes.
She can add samples of fabric and wallpaper.

An office plan

Q
Question

2 Draw a plan of a room at home. Mark in what

you would change.
2

Three interiors The doctor’s waiting room

The kitchen-diner
The family who use this kitchen-diner want to be able to:
• prepare and cook food and drink;
• serve and eat meals;
• clear away and keep the place clean and tidy;
• make it comfortable and attractive.
People who use a doctor’s waiting room are often
worried or nervous, so it is important that the design
of the room, its furniture and fittings, put them at their
ease. A communication system is needed to call patients
when it is their turn to see the doctor. Patients with small
children may need special facilities.

Meeting all these needs in a small area will challenge

the designer.

A doctor’s waiting room

Q
Question
3 How do the interiors in these two pictures
meet the needs of the users? Would you
A kitchen-diner for a small family change anything?