Egg Project

This is a straw structure that I had built for the Egg Project.  This Egg Project is an assignment that I had to do for 3d class during my days at Art school.
The only materials we were allowed to use were:
1.  Straws
2.  staples
3.  elastic bands
4.  strings

The aim of this project was to protect a raw egg in its fall from the 5th floor.  Really dumb right but I had no choice but to undertake this project since I would be marked for it.
My first try was a complete failure, I threwthe egg from the second floor and it broke.  So I spent my whole weekend designing a new structrure that could atlest survive a fall from the 3rd floor.  Most of the other students straw structures were huge (about 60cm by 60cm).  The egg was definitely well protected by the big mesh of straws surrounding it.
So, I decided to build a bigger structure around the egg.  But I was very inspired by the Bucky Ball structure because on the I had started building the straw structure, I saw the picture of the Bucky Ball on the Google page.  That date was actually the day that the bucky ball was discovered.  The Bucky ball or buckminsterfullerene is an allotrope of carbon.  It contains 60 carbon atoms and ressembles a soccer ball.  When I saw the bucky ball I was reminded of my highschool days when the chemistry teacher was covering the chapter on nanotechnology.  The bucky ball really impressed me because it has very high resitance to high speed collision and can withstand slamming into a stainless steel plate at 15,000 mph, merely bouncing back, unharmed. Moreover, when compressed to 70% of its original size, the buckyball becomes more than twice as hard as its cousin, diamond." 
This is how I started building my straw structure based on the structure of the bucky ball:


Below is the structure of the bucky ball that I reconstructed using straws.



Then I stapled several straws close to one another to create a protective mat to protect the egg:

Then, I tied the two ends of the mat to enclose the egg inside:

Afterwards, I attached the straw mat inside the bucky ball.  Unfortunately, I cannot upload more detailed pictures to describe the process of building this structure because it takes way too long to upload.  However, the bucky ball sort of tightened and is narrower because the straws are too soft and bend easily.

So, I had to reinforce the external structure of the bucky ball to provide a more bouncy effect and to absorb the impact on the egg.

I kept on adding triangles and squares around the bucky ball until it was completely surrounded by a protective mesh.  My hands and fingers hurt a lot after stapling all these straws together.  It doesn't look too bad since the straws are all colourful.  You can't see the egg at all but it's safely hidden at the centre of the structure. 

 This structure is quite big, about 50cm by 50cm or more.  When I threw the structure with the egg inside from the 3rd floor, the egg survived and did not break but it moved a bit lower in the straw mat, meaning this structure is not that safe for the egg so I did not try throwing it from the 4th floor to avoid making a mess if the egg came to break.

Now, that I think about it...all these 3d, 2d and drawing works I put so much effort to do seem so distant now...as if they were part of a distant episode of my life.  A new chapter of my life has begun, since everything is different compared to before.  I do sometimes regret this episode of my life and I wonder what would have happened if I had continued working hard towards that goal instead of taking a totally new and different path like the one right now??

But maybe this is just what fate has planned for me.... 

We never know (^_^)