Jamie Melton

As tennis players, we cycle through hundreds of balls per year as they lose pressure and become a dog's next toy, or just a dead ball. Where do the balls go when they don't bounce anymore? There are a few initiatives in the world that recycle tennis balls into new products but the majority of clubs in the portland region just throw them away due to a lack of nearby markets. My goal for this project was to explore a functional design that centered tennis balls in everyday use: sitting. Could tennis balls and an old chair be redesigned into a new shape, giving them both new and extended life? With tennis balls, dye, industrial scissors, a planer, an old wood chair, drill, screws, I set forth to explore some of my questions and heal from the weight of the world.