INDN 252: Inspirational Anatomy

So, for this next project, we have to look at an adaptation of anatomy. The idea is that we create new anatomy that serves as a practical enhancement or a visual improvement. I really like the idea of something that serves a very practical purpose, something that serves a purpose that we currently do not have available.

Maybe it could be something we can't currently do? Possibly an evolutionary path we have yet to reach? Maybe something that is a combination of the two?

Image acquired from: http://assets.sbnation.com

I feel like maybe the "second skin" (the name of the project) could be something to do with how we interact with our world? Perhaps something has happened to the world and we're forced to live with a new grafted section of anatomy that actually allows us to survive? 

Image acquired from: http://www.extremetech.com

Maybe this anatomy is something that is starting to bridge the gap between us as normal humans, and us as bionic cyborgs. Maybe this anatomy is merely the beginning of a technological revolution for us as humans? Or possibly this development is a necessity for us to survive?

Image acquired from: http://www.juliahughan.com

At the same time, the forms could be an aesthetic embellishment. I find the nature of bionics quite a appealing, and as an aesthetic element, they could have massive potential.

Image acquired from: http://api.ning.com

Another option entirely would be to have this anatomy as something that the user could take on or off, allowing them to customise their own appearance and/or functionality. The anatomy could serve as a sort of tool, or possibly it could be a holder for something, a grown pocket of sorts?

Food for thought!

INDN 211: Primary Production Phase

Well, now I am fully into production mode. I started working today on the wood lathe, which was an interesting, at times difficult, but all of the time very, very fun. The way the wood lathe just allows you to very quickly sculpt a piece of wood into a rotationally symmetrical form is fantastic. I love it.

So, I started out with my stem, so that I could practice removing a lot of wood and also as it allowed for a lot of room for error. The general sculpting of the wood took little time once I realised how easy it was to take off large amounts of wood very quickly.

Once I had my stem form, I drew out the forms for my 4 grips, and then started sculpting them. The form was rather similar, but the diameters of the sections were the really important parts. The front of the grips needed to be 20mm, while the back end needed to be 25mm, so that it would fit together with the grip well.

After about 2 hours in the wood workshop, I finally had my little family of grips  all done and dusted. However, that said, I still had to sculpt the actual sections into the grips where the fingers would hold. This took a careful amount of planning and marking out, as the grips I had now designed were a bit different to the original clay forms I was working with. So I marked the forms out , and then I used a circular sander to carve in the grooves.

At the larger grips this was rather easy, however it quickly got much more difficult when I got the second smallest. The last one I decided would not have any grip segment, to add to the difficulty of the training.

Following that section of the work, I then had to sand down the sections, as the circular sander had done a good, fast, but rather rough job. So the notches still needed a lot of refining. But, once I reached that stage, it was time to start thinking about the crucial element of the project, the vacuum forming.

The way I had planned to do my vacuum forming for this project was to mould the small raised sections out of clay directly onto the wood grips, and the remove the clay and place it onto a board I could do my vacuum forming over. This was a bit of a concern at first, as I really wasn't sure how it would work. Fortunately, it worked beautifully, however, the clay was a one-time-use. The clay somehow lost its consistency as it had the plastic shrunk over it. The clay was no longer staying together and keeping its form.

But, since it worked perfectly, this actually wasn't a concern at all.

INDN 211: Refining & Resolving

Well, now that I've done some research into what my target clientele thinks of the work in progress, it's time to start refining what exactly it should look like. For this project, form has to completely follow function, as the function is absolutely key for this project.

The material choices for this project will be fairly important. Ultimately the project is completely about comfort and ensuring that the hold is as easy and as informative for the muscles as possible. This project is essentially an extremely pure study into ergonomics for a fairly specific group.

One of the things that is rather important is ensuring that the pens have a decent amount of weight to them, as the first few levels of the pen rely on a decent amount of weight being behind the grip. The grip then sits in the hand a little bit better when having more weight.

I'm going to work the forms I want on the wooden lathe, because if I create the pens out of metal, I think I might be pushing the weight of the pens to a bit of an extreme level. To create the edging of the sections for the fingers, I want to vacuum form the plastic and then mould it over the curve of the pen grip itself, so as to ensure it fits well.

Now that I understand how I want to make my objects, I needed to experiment with form a little bit more. After previously drawing the pens as rugby-ball shapes, I realised that for optimum comfort, the pens actually needed to be a little more sophisticatedly formed than that. So I looked into form, ans started to slowly isolate a form that worked and looked sophisticated at the same time.

After isolating the form that I wanted the pens to take, I made some small alterations to the design, including the addition of a weighted back end, so as to lighten the load of the pen at the front, and make the learning to write easier for the user.

The materiality of the design was another important section in this design. The body of the pen is planned to be wood, while the tip and the weighted end are going to be metal, for obvious reasons.

After talking to my tutor, the game plan has changed. Rather significantly, I might add! The idea of options and customisation were suggested, and as I result, I've revisited the design and decided to make it much more customisable for the user. Rather than having one pen for each segment, why not make the tips, weights, and handles interchangeable on a single stem.

Another very important element was the suggestion of the pen set not actually being a pen set, but rather a paintbrush set, which would serve two purposes. First, the user would be forced to eventually graduate from the set into a normal pen, since you can't exactly use a paintbrush for everyday situations. Secondly, it could potentially introduce the user to a new hobby, namely that of calligraphy. Calligraphy is a perfect start for this set, since the pen will be large and heavy, and the forms of calligraphy are an excellent start for someone wanting to relearn to write.

Next, the production begins!

INDN 252: Final Render & Prints

Well, I've reached the end of another project. There was a bit of drama with the 3-d printing, but we got the prints back this morning. Kind of cutting it fine considering the hand-in is today, but it's not our fault. There were so many people handing in prints, that the machine took well over 12 hours to print everything, and it set us all back.

Fortunately, I had brought everything with me to finish my rings. I had a bit of drama with the leather on the large ring at first, but ultimately had success with it, and it came out looking awesome. The photos really capture the furriness of the leather, and, since this is the element that actually makes this ring work. I'm pleased.

The same, however, could not be said for for my small fit ring. That thing just collapsed around me in an ever expanding pile of crap. The little hooks that I had designed were too flimsy and ALL snapped...leaving me with a serious dilemma. I decided to sand a little dent into the loops around the edge, so that the rubber segment can sit around the smaller, solid section.

But, sadly, that stretching meant that the already thin rubber was starting to tear...all in all, this one has been an absolute disaster. Would not repeat. Would not buy again.

This then leads on to my final render of my perfect fit ring. This one I'm so damn pleased with. I have to say, that is one sexy render. Rather than go for an unrealistic gemstone interior, I went with a titanium inner edge and a silver outer edge, so that the materials are very similar (as they will be the same material when I get them back from Shapeways), but different enough so that the different surfaces are distinguishable enough to separate them.

I'm going to get this ring printed in silver at Shapeways, and will post another blog post when I get that back.

Damn. There's a reason that took 14 hours to render.