Grace Huang

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Pearl Machine

Perspective Drawing, Industrial Design Sketch

A ship that generates pearls when sailing through the sea. Drawing inspiration from a “natural process”, where I picked pearl formation, I designed a fictional, fantastical machine that mimicks the process.
Duration:
7 weeks
Course:
Collaborative Visualizing, Spring 2024
Role:Individual
Tools:Paper & pen, Copic markers, colored pencils, soft pastels


Final Deliverable #1: Storyboard

Starting with steering the ship, the machine will be powered by incoming water to iniate the pearl making process. After sailing through the ocean or lake for a period of time, pearls are ready for collection at the top chest. At last, the ship makes its way back to its pier, where the caretaker(s) unloads the pearl deposits.




Final Deliverable #2: The Machine
Regarding the form of the machine, I aimed to maintain the form language of shells in its design. Therefore, the overall silhouette of the ship is remniscient of the organic curves found in oyster shells. The front of the ship also mimicks the opening of a clam shell. Coincidentally, my ship design also “fits in” with the traditional fishing boats in Vietnam’s pearl farm harbor.





This diagram shows how the machine works under the influence of water flowing through its vents in the front.

The ship drives foward, and in reverse direction, the water flows into the ship. This motion powers the gears to move, transporting the collected sand particles through a tube. Within the tube, the ship coats the sand in nacre protein, before it is sent off to a rotating platform. The protein-coated particle is coated another layer, but this time with nacre through the twisting funnels. Finally, the particle, now a pearl sac, is sent back to the rotors, where it undergoes this process several more times to become a complete pearl.




Flow arrows:



Final Deliverable #3: The “Caretaker”

The “caretaker” of this ship is a pearl farmer from Vietnam. Characteristically, these farmers where bamboo hats to protect themselves from the sun; knee-high waterproof boots and elbow-length rubber gloves to prevent their clothes from getting wet in the ocean. While collecting pearls from the ship, the caretaker wields a bucket and wears an apron for working near wet materials.




Process Studies:
Initial Research:
 The journey started with picking a specific natural process to study. 

I chose to focus on how pearls are formed: dust/sand particles enter the shell, where layers of nacre envelope the foreign particle as a defense mechanism.

This forms a pearl sac, which grows into a pearl after several years.










Process Diagram I:

Filling in the gaps of my understanding, seeing if my understanding communicates across to different peers.






Process Diagram II (monochromatic):

Without colors, can the processs still be understood?




Process Diagram II (motion arrows):
How can the process be represented using only arrows?

Machine Form Ideation:

Inspiration:







With the external form of the machine, I drew inspiration from steampunk or “oceanpunk” style ships.






For the mechanism forms within the ship, I pulled in elements from marble run machines, as the marbles resembled the pearls undergoing a process.


Ideation Sketches: