Another cold, rainy Tuesday for Office Hours, but we were inside imagining spring. We pushed ahead on doing some more research and development on the planters, started a plant list and design ideas for the community garden, and got closer to finalizing the list of submissions from Text In-Transit.

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Owen and Laura came out for the first time and worked on brainstorming what would go into the community gardens (and Owen also made this panorama)!!

Bree started the research on the community gardens by taking a look at the site from Google Maps.

Michelle finished editing a video of the install for You Are Amazing (which will be posted shortly), Cristina, Michelle and I watched it.

Our simple seed bomb recipe is being spread around thanks to Green Corridor!

Danielle started on making another batch of pulp for our planters, this time adding some substrate (as Jodi suggested).

The newspaper ready to be blended.

Danielle is now a master at paper-pulp creation.

It was probably a little overkill, but flour and glue were added to the first batch of paper pulp.

Ready to be blended.

Adding water to the newspaper, glue, and flour.

This pulp was pretty goopy.

This pulp wasn’t going to work, but we weren’t sure if it was the flour or the glue or the combination of them that made it so unstable.

Even after getting a lot of the water out, the consistency was strange.

Lots of newspapers make for good drying tools.

At the other end of the table, Bree, Stan, Owen, Laura, and Darren were working through some ideas for what to plant in the community gardens.

This pulp wouldn’t stick together, let alone stick to the container we were trying to shape it around.

So, round two – a different recipe.

This is approximately what we tried to do: 2 tsp of white glue, 1 part paper for 2 parts water.

This pulp’s consistency worked a lot better.

Dan working the water out of the pulp. We do need a screen to do this properly, but for now we’re using this spongy thing.

This time, the pulp worked a lot better.

This pulp stuck together much like the other recipes we had tried in previous weeks, but we’re hoping the glue adds some strength.

Michelle was working on paring down the list of submission for Text In-Transit.

Michelle is organized.

Bree and Stan laid out an outline for the size of the 12 x 6′ plots.

Bree and Darren doing some more research on best practices for community gardens and what plants should be included.

Stan’s notes …

Bree working her way through the internets to find information on native plants.

Collaborative research practices at work.

The finalized recipe and the little box around which we’re shaping the pulp.

This size should be ideal for the magnets, giving them a flat surface to sit against.

This photo was from earlier today, after having these dry over night.

It seemed strong (not quite dry enough to know for sure though).

It stuck to this paper towel dispenser really well, even with these kind of weak magnets.

And, from much earlier this year, Michelle’s custom Broken City Lab notebook paper holder.

We’re taking next week off, but we’ll be back for Office Hours on April 28th.