Having taken a big step ahead with my proposed idea, I started to work with prototypes to see if I can achieve my idea.

The kinetic flower:

Firstly, I ventured into the kinetic flower, where I made use of a piece of paper for the petals and a straw for the stem. The straw will facilitate the movement of the strings, such that the strings threaded through it will keep to a straight path when pulled from one end.

Here is a video showing the opening and closing of the petals for my prototype.

The circular weave:

I did some research on how to make circular weaves, so that I can incorporate the circular shape into the weaving of aluminum cans.

However, the prototypes I made does not seem to hold together well because the aluminum pieces tend to bend back to their original form. Therefore, I decided to forgo the idea of incorporating circular shapes into my dress and focus more on making a cohesive piece with angular shapes.

The Oil spill effect:

In an attempt to address the concern on how oil spillage has harmed the birds and aquatic animals, I experimented with corrugated cardboard, acrylic paint and gloss varnish. Firstly, I tore one surface of the corrugated cardboard to reveal the jagged inside and to create a tattered appearance like a leaf bitten by caterpillar as a metaphor to how we are slowly consuming our world with our irresponsible act. Secondly, I applied different shades of oil spill. Thirdly, I applied a thin layer of gloss to replicate the shine on the surface of oil.

The result turns out to be unsatisfactory (to me because it was not up to my expectation), moreover I decided that there are too much elements to my work so I did not develop on this idea.