Saniyah Zaheer: Week 10 Lamp

 

Reference

Sketches

Inspiration

When I first saw this assignment I was reminded of stained glass windows. They had a similar effect in that they had a negative space cut out of a surface that created a design. Said space allowed light to filter through. So I looked at examples of stained glass windows to figure out how to replicate the use of negative space in my own work. When coming up with a design I looked for concepts that had a theme of 4 so that I could have 4 different sides for my lamp. After searching for a while I came upon the 4 seasons. I looked for the main symbols for each of the different seasons and used them to inspire my design. I still wanted to have some unity in my designs so I made sure they all had some sort of radial effect.

Ghosted

Naked Edges

Orthographic

Process

I started my project by drawing out my design with the Curve tool as well as other generic shapes as needed. The Mirror and Array tool also came in handy creating the repetitive design that so many of my panels sported. ExtrudeCrv was my best friend in creating this piece. After drawing out my design with the Curve line tool, I used ExtrudeCrv to make them 3D. In order to have my line work displayed properly in keyshot, I used the Pipe tool in order to make the lines solids and then BooleanDifferenced them out of the wood. 

Keyshot Close Up

Keyshot Environment

Keyshot Orthographic

Physical Orthographic

Physical Close Up

Physical Environment

Materials

My design includes 4 different seasons, which means 4 different color schemes. If I painted each of the outside panels according to the seasons, it would be too busy for my liking. Therefore, I decided to add a colored inner lining according to the season, thereby changing the color of the light the lamp emits. In Rhino I added different surfaces behind each of the sides and in Keyshot I assigned translucent plastic to it and changed the color. I wanted to keep the wood authentic to give my lamp a vintage vibe. Therefore I chose a generic Ash Wood material and then adjusted the color a little bit. 

When I got around to putting together my physical lamp, most of the process turned out like what I wanted in Keyshot. I used construction paper as liners on the inside of my lamp to create the different colors. This had a really nice subdued effect for the light. However, the top of the lamp was emitting too much light and it overshadowed the more subdued light coming out from the sight. To fix this I first put parchment paper on the top, but the light was still too bright. Next, I tried some black construction paper, and the light effect was much better. However, it didn’t really match with the color of the light wood I had. So, I painted the lamp with different layers of black, white, and brown. This allowed me to still have a sort of dark wood effect and match with the paper on top of my lamp.