Rochelle Offret: Final Project: Architectonic Lamp

Concept:

For this project I wanted to create a lamp that had more of an organic feel to it, yet would still be seen as functional, and tasteful.  Part of my inspiration for my organic shape came from an old olive oil bottle that I held onto for years, because I thought it was intriguing. I wanted to create a lamp that had similar qualities but with my own twist on the design. I no longer have the bottle but it looked similar to this one.

 

Process:

 

I struggled to achieve the shape I was aiming to achieve for quite some time.  I think this is because in the beginning I was overthinking the way I should approach the project.  So I took the advice of a very wise professor, and slept on it.  Upon my second approach I was able to attack this project with a much clearer outlook.  I created a circular curve with a 6" diameter, then I created a vertical curve using interpolate curve to create the "wave" that I wanted to achieve as the eye traveled along the lamp.  I then used polar array to duplicate an exact copy of it on the other side of the circle curve, and followed that with a 2-rail sweep to get my inner shape for the lamp.  For the outer shape I took the two vertical curves from the inner shape and copied them onto a rounded square curve, and then rotated them so they were on a 90 degree offset from the original two, then once again I used a 2-rail shape to get the beginning of my outer lamp body.  I then made a copy of that and rotated it until it was lined up the way I wanted it to be with the original.  From there I combined all three objects together to get my final massing shape.   

From that massing shape I used the Contour command to create the waffle like planar surfaces I would need in order to create an architectonic lamp.  Then using the cut-my-ribs script and the massive unroll to create the cut out sheets that will be needed for laser printing later on down the road. The end result was pretty impressive and I'm excited to get this lamp cut out and put together!

Massing Model & Planar Model

Planar Model Painted

Materials:

  For the materials I decided to go with a combination of wood for the horizontal pieces.  Then for the vertical pieces I chose to use a glass material that I created a marbled effect and added some color for eye appeal.