Silver Chain Necklace

Partner:

Iz Nettere

Object Description:

A short silver chain necklace, not short enough to be a choker but hits at about the collarbones. It's made out of sterling silver; the chain links are slightly ovular circles, each interconnected by a smaller cirlcle. The metal forming the chains has a high, thick gauge, and it has a nice weight. The clasp is a circle and a bar; you put the bar on its side to get it through the circle and then it holds the necklace together turned sideways.

Design Process

The design process was very challenging since this was my first time using p5. Since the object I was making was a chain, I started to think about which 2D primitive shapes I could use. In Iz's directions, they stated that the chains were slightly ovular circles, so I decided to use the ellipse function to create multiple ovals, and space it out into a wide circle, but because their directions stated that the necklace was not short enough to be a choker, I slightly elongated the bottom half to make it look more like a necklace. I also wanted to add holes in the middle of each oval. So I figured I would need two ovals overlapping each other, one big to represent the chain, and one small to represent the hole. Then I saw in the directions that I needed to link the chains together with a smaller circle. Similar to the oval, I decided to create two circles, one big for the chain, and one small for the hole. What was challenging was trying to figure out how to make it look like the chains were linked together in p5. After some time, I decided to overlap the right side of each shape to make it look like they were all connected and linked together. Another challenge I faced was changing each oval and circle angles to make it connect and link to each other. It was confusing at first since each shape rotates around the origin. However, after many trials and errors, I was able to figure out the pattern and it all connected to each other! I also wanted to add some dimensions to the necklace, so I duplicated the chain necklace, made the color darker, made it transparent, and overlapped it.

Reflection

Iz’s description of their object was very detailed. Their directions stated the chain’s shape, size, and color. I really appreciated the way they distinguished the main chain and the circular chains that linked the necklace together. The language they used was very simple as well, and there was not a single sentence I did not understand. After reading Iz's direction, I was able to immediately get a good sense of what the object looked like. It was easy to sketch on paper because I did not have to transfer information to a whole new system. I was able to move my hands freely and draw out their sterling silver necklace. However, depicting the image using code was very challenging. The simple direction that Iz gave me had to be broken down into even simpler, yet complex directions to input as code, and I struggled to figure out how to position each shape to form a chain. I also had a hard time with the order of inputting code. It was frustrating since sometimes nothing would happen even with the right functions just because it was not in order.