By Devon Johnson
Year 9 Creative Genius
As part of my Design and Visual Communication (DVC) class, we had to plan and design a ‘blockbod’ based on the collectable blockheads that were in Z gas stations a little while ago. The design had to appeal to possible collectors of all ages and had to have some sort of fun element. It also had to be a recognisable New Zealand creature. We were given wooden cubes that we had to base the body of our design off.
I created a Ruru because as well as being a known New Zealand creature, I have always found them adorable, and knew I could make the wide eyes into an attention-grabbing feature.
I spent the most time in class working with clay to create the shape of the Ruru’s head, feet, and beak, taking them home to bake once they were complete. One thing I really wanted to incorporate into my design was the way a Ruru’s eyes almost seemed to glow if you saw one at night.
Whenever I do a school project, I always like to look through anything that I am throwing out. In this case, I found a nightlight with lots of spherical bulbs that stuck through the plastic. When I looked at them, they reminded me just of Ruru eyes, especially because they glowed yellow. With my mothers help, I removed the electronics from the plastic and cut off the extra bulbs, making it so there were only two attached. This was the most nerve-wracking and challenging part of my project. After we had done that, we hot glued the hardened clay onto the cube and threaded the electronics through holes I had left in the head and leg attachments. Finally, I glued on the feathers. This was definitely my favourite part of the creation process as I was able to see what my Ruru actually looked like for the first time (before the feathers it looked very, very creepy and skeletal).
I am very happy with my end result. It turned out better than I could have hoped, and the eyes actually glowed! I think I managed to create quite the character—with his glowing eyes and the addition of his superhero cape, Super Ruru was ready to save the world (or just bring a smile to my teacher’s face)!
NB: Devon’s creation will be on display in the Hard Materials Technology Room during our Open Night on 27 July.