Ceramic Rituals

Christine Alcindor

The Mindfulness Eating Kit is an assortment of dishware that incorporates meditation into the dining experience as a way to reduce stress, increase focus, and help lessen anxiety or stress-induced eating. It does this by using a series of objects that integrate colors, sounds, and textures, allowing people to unwind while eating.

The Mindfulness Eating Kit is the solution to stress and emotional eating. People that resort to eating as a way to reduce stress often don’t achieve their intended goal. Instead, they end up feeling worse than before. By incorporating various meditation tools, this kit allows people to eat and meditate at the same time, which will, in turn, reduce their stress. This kit is primarily for teens and adults that endure stress daily.  It is also intended for those who have anxiety or are constantly in stress-inducing environments and situations. This could include school or work. The kit is designed like a standard lunch box. In the lunch box, however, there is a compartment for a sandwich, and on top of the sandwich are four tools that tackle four vital parts of meditation: breath, visual focus, mantras, and soothing sounds. The sandwich is cut into quarters, and each quarter is eaten sequentially after using the tools to complete parts of the mindfulness process. Once completing the four steps, the user should feel more relaxed, allowing their mind to be more clear and ready to tackle the rest of the day. This process is meant to become a daily routine that is integrated into one's lifestyle, to continuously implement mindfulness. It directly incorporates meditation into eating which is much more effective at reducing stress and improving focus than the alternative solution, using food alone.

Final Capstone Presentation

Myles Lack-Zell

Over the last number of decades, the amount of furniture in landfills has increased dramatically along with the demand for fast furniture. While inexpensive and quick to produce, these cardboard and plywood furniture pieces often contain toxic chemicals and only last a short time before being thrown away and replaced. Growing furniture from mushrooms benefits the environment by absorbing carbon-dioxide during production, and reduces the need for furniture disposal once the product reaches end-of-life.

Mycelium is the main body of fungus, that when grown together with crop waste forms a water resistant, flame retardant, and fully biodegradable Styrofoam-like solid. Mycelium furniture is grown from this composite into simple modular shapes. Once grown, the pieces are attached using bamboo components. The modules can be disconnected and rearranged to form stools, benches, and chairs, adapting to fit environmentally-conscious furniture into different types of indoor spaces.

Zoom Focus + (Presentation)

pierre Belizaire