Ashley Neal

Rubber Shopping Bag Vase - Born from the constraints of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Collab competition "By combining elements of art, design, philosophy, and technology, Gaetano Pesce has encouraged the wondrous and accidental, embracing imperfections as traits which enhance and humanize his work. Applying this philosophy to design for production has been referred to as "variance." Students interpreted this concept in their development of a full-scale functional prototype of a flower vase." PMA

Braided Rope - I collect used shopping bags for the bulk of the material for the vase.The bags were cut up and then braided into a colorful flat plastic rope about 1/8" wide.

Variance In Color - The braided rope was wound around a cylinder form and then encased[inside and out] with silicone rubber. When the silicone had set and the vase removed from the form the end produce is a colorful shatterproof vase. [The random selection of bags during the braiding process lends itself to creating variance in color of the final product]

Bent Vase - The layers of plastic rope being held together by silicone allow the vase to be contorted, bent and flexed before returning to a cylinder shape. Although extremely flexible, when stood upright the layers of rope act like a stack of onion rings.