Sowmya Rajendran: Project 4: Slots

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Week 8:

 

For design inspiration, specifically when building the main shape of the root module, I looked at  some beautifully ornamented organisms called Diatoms. These tiny things come in all different shapes and sizes. 

Diatoms are classified as either radially or bilaterally symmetrical .

The last variation is separated into three smaller parts.

For the most part, I tried to match the basic shape of the diatom at the bottom right hand side of the image.  I created a basic pentagon shape using the Polygon tool and then created the middle section using the Polyline tool.

For the engraving, I also looked at Mandala designs from Buddhist and Hindu temples for inspiration. I noticed that most of these geometric forms utilized some sort of concentric circular pattern or a layout with a single square and four circles surrounding each edge.

Mandala designs are often symmetrical in nature and symbolize harmony and unity of the universe.

Here's the final layout!

I especially like how the floral pattern turned out with the pentagon modules. I'm  excited to see how the slots will turn out! And lastly for the material, I will be using sheathing plywood, which has a thickness of 5 mm.

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Week 9:

Due to the large amount of time it was taking the laser cutter to process the slot files, the layout had to be reformatted. Here's the reformatted layout downsized to 24'' x 24'' with the engravings layer removed.

Ready to be laser cut!

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Week 10:

Finally received my laser cut slots this week! I will be assembling my structure in the coming weeks!

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Week 11:

I began experimenting with my slot pieces, trying to figure out what to build with these things. My goal was to use as many of the pieces as possible and also try to make a large,round structure in the shape of a wreath (if it was possible with the pieces I had).

Chiori Ito's paper wreaths

This is how my final wreath design turned out!