Week 11
Thur, Nov 20 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-20
Wed, Nov 19 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-19
Tues, Nov 18 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-18
Mon, Nov 17 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-18
Sun, Nov 16 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-18
Week 10
Fri, Nov 14 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-11-14
Fri, Nov 14 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-14
Wed, Nov 12 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-11-12
Wed, Nov 12 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-12
For homework, in addition to the progress made in GCAD, I also worked on my Fusion model of my lamp. It was a very repetitive process, but I got a lot completed. I first started by creating additions to the wall divider things, specifically places for the chains. I still need to model the chains, and I do not exactly know how to do that, so I will ask in class tomorrow. I also added material to the lamp. Like my desktop organizer from last year, this also has a two tone color scheme. This is what it looks like:
The lamp is basically finished, so I’m a little disappointed in myself because I made the dimensions have a .5 in. thickness, so I won’t be able to laser cut it out. However, I can potentially make it in wood working extracurricular in spring term if I have the time.
Sun, Nov 10 GCAD Open Hours – Image and description of completed in GCAD
Week 9
Fri, Nov 7 CW – image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-11-7
In class today, I was able to make progress on both my Fusion model and my luminary panels. I first started by using Fusion. I added the four missing wall things from the top, and flattened many of the walls so I can create the holders for the chains that will be connecting both the top and the bottom. I still need to make a place for the bulb, in addition to rendering it. This is what my lamp looks like right now:
I am liking the shape of it. I think the concept that I’m doing is cool, and I can’t wait to see the finished project. I am close to seeing the finished product of the luminary. I added more paper to two of my panels, and applied one to the background paper. Here is what they look like:
This is one panel I added paper to. It is almost complete, with only two petals requiring paper. My panel that just needs the background off is here:
I like the look of it. I think all the colors go together well, and I am excited to see how all the panels will looks together with the base.
Fri, Nov 7 HW – image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-7
For homework today, I worked more on my Fusion model of my lamp. It is starting to look pretty good, but I still haven’t added the light bulb yet. I still need to model it in Fusion. But the lamp modeling is pretty good. Here are the additions I made in less then one hour:
This lamp has a height of around 15 inches. It differs slightly from my sketch, so I will update it in class tomorrow. I didn’t take any screenshots of my work today, but here is a short summary of it:
I started by making the pyramid structure, where the parts will meet. Next, I thought about how I was going to make this but upside down when the idea hit me: I can just flip the cone shape upside down and that will work as the top. So that is what I did. I tweaked the rotation a little bit, but other than that it was rather simple to line up. Tomorrow, I will make the mini divider wall things for the top part.
Wed, Nov 5 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-11-5
It seemed like everyone was glueing today. There was no room for me at the glueing tables, so I wasn’t able to put the background on my panel. But I did get some work done. First, I started sketching my design for my lamp. I accounted for dimension and the layout. I also made room for the light bulb, which I will screw onto the lamp. I will have the wire exposed to enhance the floating appearance.
I am not the best artist, but I am happy what it came out to. It isn’t perfectly to scale, but the dimensions that I wrote down will direct you to the actual size of it.
These are 75% of the little wall thingys compete. The other four will be used in the tensegrity illusion, and I haven’t started designing it yet due to their complexity and because there wasn’t enough time this class. I want to put chains in between the holes, probably 10mm thickness.
Wed, Nov 5 Consultation Period – Image and description of completed in Consultation
I came into consult today to get some work done. I began to expand my base, make edges round and setting up the starting point that the tensegrity will be built on. Here is what I got up to:
Even though I was here for the entire consultation period, I was not able to get to all of the mini dividers/walls. I hope to start the tensegrity part in class, but the legs are so time consuming.
Wed, Nov 5 HW – image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-11-5
For homework tonight, I decided on a design. I started modeling in Fusion. It is a circular lamp that will incorporate my tensegrity concept. I will ask Mr. Brodie tomorrow if it is possible to use the same light as the luminary lamp, because it would fit my design much better.
This is the circular base of my lamp. The numbers and lines are just my simple outlines for the little walls/dividers that will go around it. I extruded them, making sure each was a seperate component (16 in total), and got it to look like this:
This is not, by any means, the completed base, but it is a rough starting point for it. I had to go a little outside my homework time, but I think the work I got done was worth it. Maybe, if I get it completed soon and we have .5 in. wood, I will actually be able to cut it out.
Mon, Nov 3 CW – image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-11-3
In class today, I cut out my flower and worked on my Fusion lamp model. I learned something very valuable today: The dimensions of the lamp do not need to be able to be cut out of the laser cutter. This is helpful because that means that I can make my lamp thicker, which will make it more sturdy. Because of this information, I have decided to redo my concept. I want to do a circular lamp, but still incorporate the tensegrity feature. Here is my flower:
Next class, I will put it on a white background to complete it. I still need to trim the backside of the panel so each color is separate, which will be a long a hard task to do.
Mon, Nov 3 HW – image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-11-3
(See work done in consult)
Sun, Nov 2 – image and description of work completed in GCAD Open Hours
I came to GCAD today and got some work done. Added some paper to my panels and cut off some that was glueing from last time. I am getting close to one completed panel. This has been a few weeks now, and I still haven’t finished one panel yet. But here is the closest one to being done:
The glue is drying on it right now, but in class tomorrow I will be able to cut it out. I also put more paper on three other panels. I want to flatten my panels, so I put the ones which were drying all on top of each other.
The sandwhich of wood has all my panels, besides the one I’m holding. I had fun cutting the paper out, but it is sooo time consuming.
Week 8
Thur, Oct 30 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-30
In class today, I worked some more on my model of my lamp of Fusion. I showed it to Mr. Brodie, because I wanted to know if the middle holder part would be strong enough. I had a hunch it wasn’t going to be, and he agreed. Therefore, I decided to strengthen it. Here is what I got up to:
I went into the sketch of the holder, made the walls thicker, and added supports to strengthen it even more. It is still skinny, but because of the wood, I cannot change that. Here is what it looks like on the lamp itself:
Here is the lamp with the strengthened support. It is skinny, which I can’t change, but now the middle part will be stronger and hopefully will hold the weight of the lamp effectively.
Thur, Oct 30 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-10-30
For homework, I started over on my tensegrity lamp. At first, I started by importing a chain with the help of Nick Zochowski. But then I thought about it, and I realized that I may not even need a chain to hold up the wood. Maybe I could just use a wood piece in the middle to hold it up. So that is what I did.
This is the sketch of the base. I did a octagon shape because I think it looks cool, and also the practical purpose: there is more room for support then a triangle. Here is what I built on it:
I think it looks cool, but honestly, I don’t know if it will support the weight (or where the cable will go. Those are things to think about, and what I can fix in the sketch in class tomorrow.
Week 7
Fri, Oct 24 CW – image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-24
Fri, Oct 24 HW – image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-10-24
For homework, I decided to use Adobe to make a sketch for the base of the luminary section of the lamp. Long story short, it was the wrong move. First of all, I did not know the dimensions of any of the mini dividers. In addition, there was no easy way to see if the new base I made fit. Also, I just feel like I can get a more accurate sketch when using Fusion. Anyways, here is what I made on Adobe:
The triangles coming from the squares will be positive space, but the space in between them will be negative. I think this gives it more space then the old base, but I still need to tweak the dimensions a bit.
Wed, Oct 22 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-22
Even though I had to leave early today for an away waterpolo game, I still had a productive class. In the short time that I had I was able to cut away the excess paper of the petals on all panels. Here is a before and after comparison:
While cutting, I went slowly, but I also did not press hard, and it came out like this:
Wed, Oct 22 HW – image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-10-22
For homework, I sketched out how I want the middle base to look (the base of the luminary lamp where it meets the rest of the box). I modeled it, but I was not able to start fabricating it yet because I do not have the dimensions yet. Here is my sketch:
I want there to be more space for someone to reach in the lamp and turn it off, so I will account for that space in Fusion when I get the correct dimensions.
Mon, Oct 20 CW – image and description of completed homework- CWDueDate 2025-10-20
In class today I continued the flower designing and glued some more of my base together. I started with using the escact-o knife to remove some of the excess paper that I had glued from last class, then glued the little dividers in between the base and the luminary section.
This is the base. The drawer works well, but I will need to redo that top part for the luminary because the side panels is a bit messed up. Here are all my panels drying:
Overall, class was productive, but I will need to be extra careful next class when using the exact-o knife to cut out the petals.
Mon, Oct 20 CW – image and description of completed homework- CWDueDate 2025-10-20
(See work completed in GCAD on Sunday)
Sun, Oct 19 GCAD Open Hours – image and description of completed in GCAD
I came to GCAD today and got a lot of things done. I came pretty close to 1, but the printer was taken so I still had to wait (the “good” printer is having some issues, so only one was printer was able to be active today). Despite this, I still got everything printer out. I had a lot of time today to work. I think I stayed for almost 3 hours. In that time, I printed out all my base parts of the Luminary lamp, sanded them, and glued the base and drawers. But I ran into a problem: one of my panels were messed up, so I need to redo something. Somehow, the bottom of a panel had been shifted over, so I need to fix the middle base to incorporate the imperfection. But this is good, because I actually wanted to redo the base anyways. I can make the new base tomorrow in class, after I glue some more paper on the panels. Now I am reaching a hard part with the petal-glueing because of how accurate the paper and glueing will need to be. The cutting will be difficult and I can’t use to much glue, or else my panels will stick and I will need to read the Too Much Glue book. I made an effort to not use to much glue when I put these elements of the base together, and I think it turned out pretty sucessful:
Above, surrounded by rubber bands, and my base parts being glued. Paul is in the background, and he helped me with the glueing process, and was the reason I didn’t have a lot of excess glue. The flower panels are coming out nicely, but like I already mention, things will start to get difficult. Also above are the rest of my base pieces. The most intricate piece will be redone to incorporate the messed up panel, which is not located in this image.
This is the base piece with the drawer. It is a very nice fit, and a reason I was very cautious with the glue was because to much where it isn’t needed could be the difference between a working drawer and a non working one.
Week 6
Thur, Oct 16 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-16
In class today I was working on cutting and glueing more color elements of the flowers. I first used an exact-o knife to cut out my green paper from the outline of the leaves. This process was very satisfying, but it required a lot of concentration. Out of the 10+ leave I cut out, I only had to replace one of them (I did also break one leave, but it was super delicate and the knife I was using failed me). Here are the dried papers from last class, uncut out:
I had four panels with the leaves complete on. I took the exact-o knife and traced around the leaves like this:
It took a lot of concentration to get it complete, as well as a lot of time. After I had finished cutting around the leaves, and then I started the glueing process again, this time for the yellow flower centers.
I did this for three panels, but I couldn’t do for all four because one was drying still. I am worried about the petals because they will be complicated, but I am ready for a challenge.
Thur, Oct 16 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-10-16
For homework I did something I should have done a while ago but I haven’t gotten around to: putting my lamp parts on one Adobe file to be printed. I had made sketches for each part a while ago, so all I needed to do tonight was to download the parts onto my computer and from there I dropped them into the Adobe file. I then copy and pasted each part into a sign file and saved it, so I could print the parts at a moments notice. This is what all the parts look like on one file:
Now that I’m looking at it, the parts don’t even look very complex (except for the bottom piece), but they will still look good all together. I’m debating staining the wood. I will see what the flowers look like before making any final decisions.
Tues, Oct 14 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-14
n class today I worked on putting paper of my wood panels. This is special paper, so light will be able to pass through it. But it is very delicate, so I was cautious when putting it on. To put it on, first I outlined how much paper I would need for the leaf by putting the panel over the paper that tracing around the specific part with pencil. Next I cut out the sketch. Finally, I then am able to glue. Here is the layout before I glued:
As you can see, I cut out paper for the leaves, and that is me checking to make sure that the paper would be enough for the leaves. To the right, you can see a wood board with a weight on top of it. Underneath it lays a board I had already put paper on. I was able to get three boards’ leaves done as depicted with the boards and weights below:
Here are three panels that are being pressed by wood planks and weights so they will dry well (please ignore paul).
Tues, Oct 14 Consultation Period – Image and description of completed work in Consultation
I came into consultation today, and I was lucky to get a spot on the printer. Even though it was the “bad” printer, I was carve my panels out with minimal sticking. So now, I have all my panels printed. In class, I will start working on putting the paper on the petals. I’m hoping to print the rest of my lamp soon, but I have all the required parts in wood right now. Here they are:
These are the good panels. I like how they are a flowing design along all panels. The mistake panels are here:
The problem with the one on the right was that it burned up a bit in the printer, and the one on the left’s issue was that was also broken, but this due to the printer not cutting all the way through and I was not careful enough when opening it.
Tues, Oct 14 HW – Image and description of completed homework- HWDueDate 2025-10-14
I scraped my last design. I found the sizing of the triangle to be off, which is why I’m scraping it. I instead am going with a more boxy design, but I don’t love it either. In class tomorrow I will work on a new design.
I also started on my triangle again but I scraped it too. It will be helpful to make a big sketch before I start working on the lamp.
I also want to mention that I was in Consultation on Sunday. I was there for almost an hour but I wasn’t able to print anything. My classmate promised he would be quick and that he had to leave at 7:30, but he was not quick and lied about needing to leave so I wouldn’t take the printer.
Week 5
Fri, Oct 10 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-10
In class I worked on my design of my lamp. I was on Fusion, and I began to work with making triangles. I also sketched my design, but not the full scale one. This project will be hard and I will need to do some more reaserch on how to do it. In class, I also began to model the lightbulb which will be used in the lamp. I first want to make this lamp in Fusion so I can see what it will look like in scale with the lamp.
This is the bulb. I first put the image into Fusion the I made a sketch on its face and traced around it.
Here is what the triangle looks like. The joints were complicated, but I was able to manage. But the scale is off, so I will need to fix it up, or maybe even scrap it.
Fri, Oct 10 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-10-10
Tensegrity is a structural principal that is stable which looking discontinuous by elements being looking like they are being suspended in mid air. It is self-supporting through balance, and, from what I can tell, it can hold a lot of weight. For these reasons, and because I think it looks cool, I wanted to incorporate this element into my design. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look at theses examples:
I want to have my lamp be supported by/incorporating this element. I met with Nick Zochowski, who took this class last year, to bounce some ideas off him, and this is the design we created together:
The bottom of the whiteboard is the design. I want to make four support pillars made of tensegrity technology, with the light facing downwards. I haven’t yet decided yet if I want to have the lamp be exposed, or make a mini luminary box surrounding the lamp which design looks somewhat like the pillar.
Wed, Oct 8 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-8
I came into consult today and I was able to hop on a printer early, so, against my predictions, I was able to print out all my panels. They are coming out nicely, however, my last panel came out burned and I will need to redo it. Despite this, I enjoyed class today. We were introduced to the new project, and I am excited to start designing the lamp. At the moment, I have no ideas, but I have the urge to start designing soon. My personal project of the phone holders haven’t been touched in a while, and the Fusion app hasn’t been used for a couple days. But I’m ready to start when I get an idea. Here are my panels:
The one on the left will need to be redone, but other than that, I feel like I am in a good place. The paper I will use for the panels will not be in for a while, and my other parts will not be printed out until my classmates have printed their parts, because I want to let others use the printers too.
Wed, Oct 8 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-10-8
For homework, I started adding my pieces to one adobe page so I can print whenever the printers are available, but I’m not predicting I will print soon especially with others needing to print as well and I am so far ahead.
Mon, Oct 6 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-6
In class, I was able to start printing again. This time, I slowed the speed to 4 and got to work. This time, everything printed out great, but this may have been due to the fact that I used the newer printer. These are how they came out:
I only printed out two because I didn’t want to hold everyone else up in line. After I had finished printing, I took it into the sanding room, but it was to delicate to comfortably sand thoroughly.
Printing next class will be difficult if I can’t get on a printer early, so I will try to get their as fast as I can.
Sun, Oct 5 GCAD Open Hours – Image and description of completed in GCAD
I went to GCAD today for a couple hours. I know that the printers will be busy tomorrow, so I began to print things out. Before I could do this however, I needed to finish my panel design. Using the alternating flowers I made last class, I was able to do it rather simply. To make the design look connected, I made the flowers go on two panels at once. After I had done this, I began to remove the flower in places they were meant to be (in between the panel gaps). This was time consuming, but it was efficient because Mr. Brodie showed me the took to use to make this simple.
As you can see, the flower is connected to the panel. I have to remove some parts, like ones you see in the panel to the right, to get it to be connected to the box and look good. Like I said, this process was tedious, but it was worth it. Once I had finished removing all the un-needed parts, I went to print, but there was a problem: the panels were connected, meaning that they couldn’t be printed individually. So in order to fix this, I went on Adobe on the computer in the printing lab and moved various panels and their associated parts to different layers, and moving them from there. Finally, I was able to print.
The first version came out like this. Looks good, right? Well when I was removing the pieces in the negative space, I accidentally broke part of the petal, which was needed for the petal color change barrier. The next version also failed. I was on the old printer, and despite slowing the speed down, it still didn’t print properly, with it not cutting through the wood in various places.
As disappointing as these panels were, there is good news: because I needed to go, Mr. Brodie offered to print my pieces out for me, so when I go to class tomorrow, I need to only worry about printing my lamp out. I’m excited for the next project because there won’t be as strict of guidelines for the design, so I may brainstorm a little tonight about what I want it to look like. I’m hoping that I can get to a printer tomorrow, but there is no rush.
Week 4
Fri, Oct 3 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-10-3
I never though I’d be saying this, but I was able to find a flower I liked. I did so in a simply way: instead of making a sketch on a rectangle, I did so on the flower I liked itself. Therefore, all flowers more or less looked similar to my favorite flower. I still generated a couple rounds of “simple peony flower”s until I was able to get the one I wanted. From there, I simplified it (getting rid of details that wouldn’t print/print incorrectly).
The flower in the right is my original one, and the one on the left is the one I found looked similar to it. To be able to print later, I needed to simplify the left flower now. I zoomed in and deleted a lot of the details which were not needed.
This is a screenshot of me making the flower face simpler. After getting rid of some of the details, like the middle line in the stem, the dots in the middle, the divider lines in the leaves, and some other changes with the petals and stems, I got it to look like this:
The one on the left is the variation and the one on the right is the original. Now that I’m looking at it, I sort of like the one on the left better. But both are good, and I’m happy I was able to find a rival flower. Now that I’ve found two, I think that this is enough. Since it was a half day class today, I did not have enough time to work on the panel design, but I promise that I’ll come in on Sunday to work some more.
Fri, Oct 3 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-10-3
The one biggest things that I dislike about myself is that I am a perfectionist. In some cases it is a good thing, but in others, like this project, it is a bad thing. Because I consider the one of the peony flowers I generated to be the best, I am having a very hard time trying to find ones to go with it. I’ll generate a set then think it won’t match, so I generate a new three. A solution to this would have been to add a variety of flowers, but I run into the same problem: I can’t find any to match. Anyways, I still went along and made some more variations, but in class I will decide wether to use them or not.
These were selected out of so many generated images I can’t keep track. A solution that I have though of as I am typing this right now it to slightly change the form of my “perfect flower” so it can match with more.
Tues, Sept 30 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-9-30
Because we had class second period, I came for consult beforehand to start working early. Like I said yesterday, I wanted to run my idea past Mr. Brodie. The response was what I was expecting: he wanted there to be repetition. This will be hard for the peony, because the one I have right now is perfect, so I can’t find any that could be with it. So instead, I want to add other flowers that I’ve seen in my grandmothers garden. I will ask her after school what other flowers there were. In class I did some test runs of my panel design. I explained to Mr. Brodie what I wanted to do with my flowers (have negative space for each petal and color the space so light will shine through a different color), and he was able to help me with Adobe. We changed the line thickness, made two, and combined the shapes. It looked like this:
The petals and various other elements inside will be positive space. Before I could test the design with the laser cutter, I needed to remove some parts which were to small and/or were ugly:
This is mid-removal of elements that didn’t belong. After I removed everything, I tested it with the laser cutter. This took two attempts before I got what I wanted. My first mistake was that I had etched the design and it didn’t cut out because the settings were incorrect.
This is mid cutting out the incorrect attempt. As you can see, the positive flower parts are etched. Below are both design side by side, with the correct one on the left.
Even though I like the flower on the left more, there are some things I need to change. The first (and most pressing matter) is that I need to find a way to make the positive thicker. If it is pretty thin, there is a chance that it could break or catch on fire. The second it that if the positive space is thin, I may not have room to put paper in between the gaps.
The other things I did in class was make some more flower variations. I want there to be multiple flowers, but I will wait to finalize some until after I talk to my grandmother.
Tues, Sept 30 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-30
I have some bad news: I wasn’t able to stop in GCAD over the weekend. I did not stop by Sunday because I saw that GCAD was open Monday night, so I went Monday night but Mr. Brodie wasn’t there so I couldn’t get done what I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was test out my design by cutting it out of cardboard using the laser cuter. Since I wasn’t able to do this, I did two things for homework: make sketches for each individual part of the box on Fusion (so I have the sketches ready to use whenever I need it) and I made the design for the box-more on that below.
This is the fully projected box. The purple dots are projected points, and you can see all the sketches I made under the “Sketches” part in the screenshot.
Now onto the panel design:
This is what I am going to do for the design. While I may loose points for the simplicity of it, I think it will come out very nicely. There will be negative space where there are no flowers, and each petal will have light shinning through it, and they will be colored how you seem them right now. I was thinking about it, and tracing each individual flower will be hard enough on its own, so the variety of flowers will be super time consuming, in addition to not all of the flower varieties following the same designs of the original one, so it would look like they don’t belong, and in my opinion would look ugly. I will stop by consult before class tomorrow before class, but I am pretty set on this design.
Week 3
Fri, Sept 26 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-9-26
[Not in class due to sports tournament]
Fri, Sept 26 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-26
I homework tonight, I wanted to start designing the top of my luminary box. To do this, I first projected a sketch of the top on Fusion, converted it into a .DXF file, and imported it into Adobe. There, I started playing with some designs, but I didn’t love any of them. So an idea that occurred to me was to have the top be the same as the panels, and have it also flow with the design, so instead of having panel design going only around the box, it can be over it too. I don’t know how to get the correct oriantation, so I will ask Mr. Brodie when I next see him (I will not be in class tomorrow due to a sports tournament).
This is the projected luminary top, unlike the side panels, I did not need to cut out any of the side lines and got it into Adobe correctly first try.
This is the luminary top in Fusion. Like I said previously, I want the design to flow to the top, but I will need help orientating it.
Wed, Sept 24 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-9-24
I don’t have a lot of work to show today, but that is not for lack of effort, it’s because I did not make a lot of progress. I first started by converting my custom panels of the luminary box in Fusion into .DXF files and sent them to Fusion. This took a couple tries because, even though I have projected the face, it did not cut off the joints, so I had to get back into the sketch and manually cut them out. After I had the panels on Fusion in the correct format and units of measurement, I began adding flowers. Now, when I create flowers, I need to consider three things: the first is, is there going to be enough negative space for there to be light in between the petals and other parts of the flower? And the second being, is it to detailed? These are both important things to consider since this is a LAMP, so there has to be light coming out of it. The third and final thing I consider is if it matches the previous flowers already on the box. This was the part that made me use the most time, because if I didn’t like how it looked in relation the the other flowers, I would remove it and generate a replacement. I’m estimating I generated 50+ flowers, and of those I took 3. Mr. Brodie does not want many repeat flowers, so I can’t just copy and paste flower; instead, I need to find other variations which I like, which is why the process was so time consuming, and why I don’t have much to show from it.
This is the sketch that was converted into Adobe. The interior rectangle was added to the sketch but not extruded. It represents where the design of the box will go. I still don’t know what design will go in the top- if there will be one.
You would not be able to see the blue rectangles if the sketch was hidden. As I said in the lines above, the purpose of them are so when they are on Adobe, I know where the design should range from.
Here are some of the flowers I made. They all look similar, but the countless variations I made looked different. For homework, I think I will create some more variations of the flower, so there is minimal repetition. Maybe if I can accomplish that then I can cut out some parts next class.
Wed, Sept 24 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-24
I did two things for homework tonight. The first (and arguably more fun of the two) was to make the top of the luminary box in Fusion. For the flowers to really shine, I don’t want their to be light coming out of the top of the box, because that would ruin the sight. Speaking of the flowers, the next thing I did for homework was to test out the alternative flower I made on Adobe a couple days ago. Here are how those things turned out:
This was the sketch of the top of the box. If you’ve been keeping up with this blog pages last couple posts, you can probably guess what tool I used a lot of: the mirror tool.
Here is what the finalized Fusion model of the complete box will look like. The above section will have the flower design while the base has a drawer. The drawer could be useful if the lamp was used on a night stand, providing extra storage space.
I was thinking of using this flower as the replicated one on the box. It will be a lot of work tracing it for negative space, but I think it will work. With the negative space in the flower itself, I would like to use paper and have it colored the same way you see it pictured above. While it will be a lot of work, I luckily have Sunday GCAD hours to spare. Hopefully I can make this design work.
Mon, Sept 22 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-9-22
In class today, I continued to work on the lamp in Fusion. I still haven’t been able to come up with an Adobe design that will fit what I’m trying to do, but I have the lamp frame completed. In terms of turning the light on and off, the most simple solution would be to lift the lamp of the base, instead of making a drawer or slider so the light box would never need to leave the base.
I first started by making the dividers be able to connect to the bottom of the light box. This was rather simple, and the mirror tool was very helpful.
Here is what the completed divider section looks like (I hid the top of the base so you could see the bottom of the little dividers). This is what the luminary box would connect to. It would be stable, and hopefully would not be challenging to turn on and off.
I next started modeling the luminary panels. I’m using the dimensions 5.5×10, so I will transfer them over to Adobe for homework or next class. I like the look of these smaller panels on the base, I think the scale works well.
I next started working on the base of the luminary box. This took a couple tries to finish since I forgot to have negative space, but I think I have enough now.
Here is what the base looks like with the negative space “present.” There are slots for the dividers to connect to, as well as the future light source holder. I like the look of it, but I don’t know how easy the light will be to turn on and off.
This is where the lamp design is at right now (the front wall is hidden so you can see the base of the luminary section in play). I hope to get ideas for the panels soon, but I’m excited with the progress I’ve made on the lamp.
Mon, Sept 22 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-22
(See work completed on Sunday, September 21 during GCAD Open Hours)
Sun, Sept 21 GCAD Open Hours – Image and description of completed work
I went into GCAD today to get some work done. I showed Mr. Brodie my flower design, which is when he discovered some issues with it. The first being that the custom layout I had made for the artwork would not work. The second was with the artwork itself: the flowers were to detailed, and the laser cutter would not be able to cut it out that detailed.
These were some of the designs I had made as an alternative, but I think they are to detailed. A solution to this would be to trace of the lines with a thicker one, and cut out some of the smaller details. I did not want to get to caught up in that so I started modeling the box on Fusion. Like I had mentioned in a previous blog page update, I want to make a base with a drawer underneath the light. Here is what I started with:
First I started with the base. I used the mirror tool to get the rectangle from the right side to the left side in less time. Unfortunately, I had the wrong size of rectangle on the right side, but that could have been avoided if I had decided to do the last rectangle instead of skipping right to the mirror step. After building this base, I decided to work next on the drawer.
The drawer took a couple tries to get the sizing correct, but this is what I ended up with. I hope that there is enough room on all sides for it to slide, but not to easily. I will not know if I have left enough space until it is carved out of wood.
After the drawer I started working on the little divider section that will go in between the lamp and the base area. I made a sketch on the top of the base which I could extrude from, and took a screenshot of it because I thought it looked cool.
This is the base with the drawer and the little divider section. I did not have time to start modeling the lamp yet, but I will tomorrow in class. I started working on the around 2:30 and got to this point at around 4:30. Sadly, I did not get to make any progress on the phone stand, but maybe I will have time to do so later this week or next Sunday’s open hours.
Week 2
Fri, Sept 19 CW – Image and description of completed homework. – CWDueDate 2025-9-19
Class today was frustrating. I realized that my flowers were super detailed, so I don’t know how I’m going to get light through them. I kept make new images, but deleting them. I made probably 4 different variations- all which I scraped. I wanted to then start working on the base of the lamp in Fusion, but I don’t know the sizes of my panels because I changed the sizes. Overall, it was a very productive class, but it came with no results. If I have time, I will come in on Sunday consult to work on this and have Mr. Brodie’s help, because I don’t know how to do a lot of things on Adobe (he was not present today because of an emergency).
I took this screenshot midway through one of the designs that I scraped. If I can get help on Sunday, I may revert back to my original design.
Fri, Sept 19 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-19
I went to consultation to complete my homework. Even though I was given a template for panels of the Luminary lamp, I decided to make my own. I created a new workspace and copied and pasted the panels in. I made them into one large workspace because my design will flow, and it is hard to visualize with break in between. After I had completed the outline, I started adding flowers. I found a peony I liked, which I was able to find with the prompt “peony flower with long stem.” The long stem part was necessary because some of the generated images didn’t have stems while others were to small. I needed there to be a long stem so I could fit many peonies in each panel. I still don’t know what I will do for an etch image on the panels, but I know where the negative space will go: in and around the peonies. Here are screenshots I took while in consult:
This is my new workspace for the lamp. I remembered to make separate layers for the panels and for the flowers. The rectangles you see in between each box is where the panels would meet when the box is constructed, so the rectangle account for that.
Here are all the flowers outlined. I hope to clear space where the flowers are inside of the dividing rectangles, or maybe even etch that part into the wood so it flows seamlessly.
Wed, Sept 17 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-9-17
In class today, I realized I wasn’t actually following the steps Mr. Brodie laid out for this assignment. The first step was to “Select authentic personal subject matter that reflects your own interests, values, or experiences.” I want to do something flower related. Both of my grandmothers like to garden, and whenever I go to visit them, they show me the flowers in their gardens. My favorite one out of all that I have seen are the peonies. For “Design[ing] four related panels for the lamp, ensuring that the imagery on each side connects visually and thematically to create a unified piece,” I want to have a flowers (specifically peonies) covering all sides of the lamp, and I can give it as a house warming gift to my grandmother who is getting a house in Princeton.
These are my paper plans. I want the flowers to “flow” onto each face of the box. Above is the overall structure of what I want the finished product to look like.
This is me beginning to design my
Wed, Sept 17 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-17
I went to GCAD on Sunday to get some work done. First, I etched my design on wood. This took three tries until it turned out the way I wanted it to (see final etch and earlier designs below). Next, I started working on my lamp. I still have no idea about what type of design I want on the lamp, but I tweaked the dimensions so it is a little less tall. I did this because I will have a base for the lamp, and if it is too tall it will be ugly. The last thing I did in consult was start working on a personal project given to me by Ms. Niu. Her phone holder for her classroom broke, and its been broken for almost 2 years, so she asked me if I could make a new one and I agreed. I went about this like any other project. First, I started sketching the design. I researched average phone dimensions to get a good understanding of the sizes of phone I would need, as well as drawing the design of how the holder will look. Overall, I had a pretty busy but fun 4 hours at GCAD.
These are my 3 etch attempts. The one on the left came out to light and the one in the middle to dark, so, for the etch on the right, I changed some colors, drew outlines of more qualities of the figure to stand out, and changed the power setting, to get that final result.
This is the final etch with the negative space cut out. I sanded the back, but I did not sand the front because I did not want to hurt the etching.
Something to keep in mind for my luminary lamp is to make the different components are on separate layers, because a problem that kept coming up for me on this project was the my components were on the same level.
This is the sketch for the organizer. I found sketching it out first useful because I was able to calculate the dimensions needed ahead of time.
This is were the holder is at right now. I am not sure how to make a slanted bottom layer yet, but I will keep thinking. I am excited to see how this project turns out, and I hope Ms. Niu will like it.
Week 1
Fri, Sept 12 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-9-12
I did a LOT of brainstorming and bouncing ideas of Mr. Brodie today. This project will be heavily graded on the artwork, but I want to go one step beyond. In addition to the lamp, and want to make a base with a drawer connecting to the bottom of the lamp. Also, I want to make the light have a couple layers to it, but the issue with that is the thickness of the sides may be an issue. I will keep thinking of patterns over the weekend, but this is what I have to show so far:
These are the ideas so far. I have more in my head, but I don’t know how to put them into words. I guess you will just have to wait to see what I come up with.
I forgot to mention that I saved my Adobe files to a hard drive but I was not able to print it in class. I will come in over the weekend to work and announce a personal project I will be working on then too.
Fri, Sept 12 HW – Image and description of completed homework- HWDueDate 2025-9-12
I did not have a lot to do for homework tonight. Despite the mistake in the previous class, I still was able to get a lot done. The only thing I needed to do for homework was to put borders on some more features of my person that I though would need a little extra help standing out and recoloring some features for more contrast and/or to look better.
This is an up-close image of something that I outlined. It is hard to see the border because it is 0.0001 thick, but the Laser Cutter is still able to read it.
This is what I believe is the final version on my person. I hope to print next class and I have my fingers crossed that no mistakes will occur again.
Wed, Sept 10 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-9-10
A lot happened in class today. First, I discovered that I had made an error- when I had created the image, I had accidentally connected it to the sides of the window frame, so they were all located on the same layer. This cause some problems with the color coding, which how I discovered the issue. So I redid the man, this time on the correct layer, and I was able to color him with good contrast. It is important for there to be a high contrast in color so the image’s details actually show up. Another way to make there be contrast is to outline shape. Even by setting the outline to 0.0001 thickness, you will still get a line visible.
I took this screenshot midway through outlining the open space. Some people in my class found this step annoying, but I found it satisfying when you could get the pink line to match the curve of the outline of the figure.
Wed, Sept 10 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-10
Because I had almost fully finished my design in class, I did not have a lot of work I had to do tonight. One thing I did was I converted it to gray scale then detailed the hair, eyes, eyebrows, mouth, and nose. The other thing I did was trace around the man in the same way that I did in class on Monday. I think I will be able to etch it next class.
Mon, Sept 8 CW – Image and description of completed homework- CWDueDate 2025-9-8
In class today, I began working on an etching project. First, Mr. Brodie gave us an example of this project, then walked us through the process of creating images to use for the etch design. Before I could get to designing, I needed to practice outlining an existing image, which I found to be frustrating in some points, but I learned a lot from it. When I finished this, I began designing my project. The frame of our piece is a window frame, so using Adobe’s AI tool, I created an image of a man leaning out of the window.
This is a screenshot from mid-outlining the dog. Each point was a place where I changed the angle to accurately go around the dog.
Mon, Sept 8 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-9-8
For homework today, I watched the review videos on documenting skills I learned last year. I found these videos helpful because they game me a refresher on the guidelines that I was told last year.
Week 0
Sat, Aug 16 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-8-16
Sat, Aug 16 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-8-16
Sun, Aug 17 HW – Image and description of completed homework – HWDueDate 2025-8-17
Sun, Aug 17 CW – Image and description of completed homework – CWDueDate 2025-8-17