Research
Reaching out to people I know who love to cook, I gathered information about problems they have with kitchen tools and improvements that they would want to see
IMAGE BLOCK OF INTERVIEW RESPONSES
User images/personas? Graphic?
Ideation
Three design ideas emerged from this process:
A tool for cooking ground meat that can act as both a masher (to separate the meat) and a spoon for general cooking use
Colander that is less of an eyesore, currently takes up too much space for how ugly it is
Adjustable extending tongs
ADD IMAGE GALLERY
Developing the Colander
Expanding on the aesthetic complaints for the colander, I saw a chance to redesign the colander from a functional standpoint in order to improve aesthetic value
The problem: The plethora of holes on a colander
Each hole creates a new edge that needs to be wiped, making the colander harder to clean
Many holes are disruptive to the form of the tool, making the colander less visually appealing
How could a colander drain water in a way that is more beautiful and easier to clean than holes?
Initial Solutions
Colander “bowl” section can be made of layers of wavy, bent material, to create gaps between the layers where water can drain out
Wavy forms can look beautiful and intentional, discreetly draining water without being visually purpose driven
Upper layer waves can be held like handles to reduce the bulkiness and disjointed nature of added handles
The Colander “base” can be a wavy small leg structure that joins with the “bowl” at a raised floor
Keep base footprint small so that it is easily placeable among and above other objects in a crowded sink
Raised floor allows for discreet drainage at the bottom of the colander without food falling through
MORE SKETCHES ABOVE
Simplifying
I continued thinking about water “flowing” out of the colander instead of encountering random drainage gaps to fall out of.
Applying the idea of flow to both desirable aesthetics and functional performance, the simplicity of minimalist modern design came to mind.
The easiest way for water to flow out of something is down a slope. What if the colander is a bowl sitting atop a hill?
Concerns
Will small foods fall through?
The gap between the bowl and base will be small enough that things such as blueberries wouldn't be able to get through
What about foods like angel hair pasta?
The way that food is dumped into a colander in a large mass makes it difficult for individual strands of thin foods like spaghetti to separate from the mass and fall through openings in the colander.
This applies to current hole-based colanders and will continue to be applicable to the colander being designed here.
Measurements
To determine the profile of the bowl, I spent time drawing various forms that would begin as curved at the base of the colander and gradually straighten out to a completely vertical profile at the top.
I then measured the drawing at various heights and adjusted its scale so that the “mouth” of the colander would be relatively similar to that of typical colanders found on the market today.
Now with an accurate scale conversion for the drawing, I prepared for fabrication of the prototype using stacked lamination, dividing the “bowl” diagram into 10 even layers, as determined by the thickness of the wood I was using, and determining the diameter of each layer.
Fabrication
Each layer of the colander was made out of six “slices” of wood to form a wood grain that was roughly circular
The layers were first assembled as semicircles so their inner areas could be cut out, leaving halves that were glued together to form rings.
Cutting away the interior of each layer saves a lot of time when turning the bowl on the lathe.
These ring-layers were stacked and glued together to form the bowl and similarly constructed solid layers were stacked and glued together to form the base
Finished Model 1 Components
Design Improvements
Shell base for contact (SKETCH OF NEW BASE ABOVE AND OF COLORED PROCREATE SKETCH OF WOOD CHOICES)
The bottom of the base should not be flat, it should have few points of contact to make it easier to be place in a sink
Aesthetic choices
Using cherry wood for most of the colander, with a maple wood pattern flowing from the bowl down through the base, mimicking the flowing water seen in functional use
Fabrication Improvements
Trapezoids instead of triangular “slices” for the “bowl”
Trapezoids can be cut identically using a table-saw jig and then rolled up cleanly for gluing
- Pieces being identical makes for consistent form and aesthetics
- Constructing only the perimeter of each layer saves material
- “Rolling” technique using tape makes gluing much easier and results in more consistent layers
