Object Design and Fabrication 110

Our initial idea when looking at both of our designs was to go for a floral sort of route. A lot of my designs resembled vases, and Gabrielle's models were very organic and winding, sort of resembling flowers and vines. I was away during the second week, so I did my concept sketching from home while Gabrielle worked on modeling them in class. I wanted my designs to serve as a supportive base for her more intricate and delicate pieces in the hopes that it might make printing them a bit easier.  Gabrielle's initial models My initial models My concepts Gabrielle's models

I started playing around with the SubD tools in Rhino so I could push and pull the forms a bit more deliberately. I structured my designs so that they could possibly serve to be the base of the structure when combined with other works. I also played around with Offset Surface to create depth and play around with different shapes.

     I decided to fully commit to my spinner idea in the end. I engraved circles into the bearing caps to provide better grip and a more interesting tactile experience when interacting with the coaster. I think overall it came out how I planned it to. A lot of my numbers came down to guess-work and I was lucky enough that all of my measurements turned out to be correct. My biggest issue though was the rod that was going to go inside of the bearing to reduce friction of the caps had fallen through the laser cutter grate both times and I couldn't recover them. I tried to improvise a solution through using tape and toothpciks to suspend the caps just above the edges of the bearing, but this didn't work as well as I had hoped, nor was it very permanent. One of the elements of my design that I had erased from my initial concepts were the weights on the edges of the spinner. I thought it would be best to simply my design as I had not worked with this sort of material before and...

      I decided to follow through with my spinner design, changing the silhouette to look less like a classic fidget spinner. The hole in the middle will be where the bearing sits in, and the bearing caps will be cut to sit flush with the rest of the spinner so it can rest on a table flat. I anticipate the need to make a top plate to ensure the thickness is larger than the bearing itself, but that won't be hard to do later on. The holes on the edges will likely be filled with metal or magnets to add weight and allow it to spin better. My main material will be birch plywood.

     My favorite concepts out of this set are the clock coasters, the spinner, and the ornamental cup holder. I feel the cup holder will be the easiest as far as production goes, but I would like to see the spinner through as I think it has a lot of potential. I was thinking of using magnets as weights so it could be stored as a fridge magnet or stacked in a set. I also think there's a lot of possibilities as far as ornamentation and decoration of it goes.

The critiques I received mentioned filling out the courtyard much more and essentially decorating the castle with foliage and railings. I also added terrain to the background to better make the scene feel like an actual place. It was also suggested to me to add swords or remnants of the knights that would have resided there. I was told my concept had the feel of a video game, and I think really leaning into that with the stylized trees and weaponry helped to solidify that feel. I didn't have too many issues with lighting apart from having a hard time deciding which light color to use and what sun height would best suit the vibe of the scene.