Samalia Morrison
Photo Album
Gisborne Girls' High School
Year 12 Materials Technology, Half-year project
Teacher: Heather McIntyre
Samalia was asked to make an item to mark the Gisborne Girls' High School 50th jubilee. After considering products from other school reunions and special events, and discussing her ideas with the jubilee organiser, she decided to custom-make a photo album that could serve as a memento for those attending and could be used to display photos from the event.
Samalia investigated photo albums in local shops to get an idea of appropriate size and number of pages. She wanted a product which looked smart and was unique and found the solution she was looking for in a book – an album with a stainless steel cover. She then visited a local engineering firm that sold metal products, where staff was very helpful in helping her select a suitable material. She found that stainless steel is very expensive and would be more difficult to work with in the school workshop so, after discussing the features of various materials, chose to work with aluminium sheeting.
Samalia says it was fun marking out the metal and drilling the holes for the spiral binding. She tried different binding techniques using a range of materials, and spent some time looking around for what she could buy that might be suitable. As well as considering aesthetic aspects, she had to ensure the album would be easy to open. She visited a printing firm to look at different options and chose a metal binding because it fitted her metal 'look'. She also compared the properties of different types of paper, as the album required good quality paper to make it durable.
Samalia enjoyed using different equipment during construction - such as the vinyl cutter to make a stencil and the sand blaster to write on the cover. The album incorporated the jubilee logo and a poppy – to represent the school motto 'Tall Poppies Bloom Here'. The school colours, red and black, were used for the poppy and the end-pages of the album.
Teacher comment
This project was a challenge for Samalia, as she had to go out into the local community on her own to find out about different materials and methods. She came up with a product that was appropriate, useful and a reflection of Gisborne Girls' High School.
