Ailton Correia performing on his Berumbau at a Banjo Project immersive workshop at Handshouse Studio in Norwell, MA August 2018.
We have lost a hero. Ailton (Nito) Correia, a rising star in Industrial Design at Massachusetts College of Art, a central member of our Handshouse family, a Capoeira performer, a Cape Verdean-American from Amherst, MA, an artist and so many things, most important of which being a very, very dear friend to so many…
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Prototype and sketch of the Swivel Box Puzzle Feeder by Mallory DePoe
This is the time of year, The Toys for Elephants project class would normally be delivering a fleet of enrichment toys to Emily and Ruth, the Elephants at the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford. Circumstances this year turned out to be a little bit different. Students in the 2020 Massachusetts College of Art and Design Toys for Elephants class did not let these circumstances get them down however, they just found a slightly smaller group of clients at the zoo. The Monkeys!
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The “Rainbow Bridge” elephant enrichment toy, one of the 2019 toys designed & built by Massachusetts College of Art & Design Toys for Elephants students
This week each year is a special one for Handshouse Studio & the Buttonwood Park Zoo. Students from the Mass College of Art & Design Toys for Elephants class deliver unique enrichment objects they have designed & built during the course of this semester-long Handshouse Studio workshop to Emily & Ruth, Buttonwood Park Zoo’s resident elephants. This week would have marked the 10th consecutive year of designing, building & delivering enrichment objects for these elephants & their managers.
Read MoreStacked paper ‘sections’ to become the layers of Olivia Witkor’s Trojan Horse model
Check out some of the models made by student Olivia Wiktor of the Trojan Horse, part of the Making/History: Trojan Horse Project. Originally the class goal was to continue research done in past workshops and classes by extensively studying the form of the horse, and creating several versions as 4-foot models made of wood. When the class had to move online, the project had to be adapted. Olivia, an Architecture student at Mass College of Art, was able to alter the classes CAD drawings of the Trojan Horse model, & using her Rhino skills, scale them to a few different sizes so fellow students could create layered horse models with the kinds of materials they could work with from their own homes.
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Mae Kam and Mae Dok strolling past the Toys for Elephants group doing their daily foraging in the natural hills and streams near their home at BEES Elephant Sanctuary.
Handshouse Studio traveled with the Toys for Elephants project to Thailand again! A group of 15 people from 5 different colleges from the US and England, traveled together to Thailand this past January to design and build both enrichment objects for Elephants, and tools for elephant keepers to improve life for elephants at BEES Elephant Sanctuary. (continue)
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On Norwell Cares Day, September 20, 2019, Norwell high school students joined Handshouse Studio for a one-day workshop making historic gourd banjos.
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