Amy Huang - ATCM 3355.001 Project 4: Makercase Lamp

Concept:

Chinese boat lanterns

My inspiration for my lantern comes from Chinese paper lanterns, specifically the ones used during the Lantern Festival and Chinese Spring Festival. Usually, they will be square and made so that they can either be hung or float on the river. Traditional lucky colors are red and yellow, with lucky symbols on the sides. I also took inspiration from traditional antique Chinese wooden doorways for the ornamentation on the corners. 

Antique Chinese circular window

Process:

I used the Rhino Box template as my base. I then drew the ornamentation on the borders and the symbols in the middle of the lantern with curves, copying and pasting them to each of the other sides of the lantern as needed. The way I created my 3d models was by first extruding the outer curves and capping it to create a solid. I then extruded the inner curves and did a boolean difference to create the pattern. 

Arctic Model

Ghosted Color

After I laser cut the wooden pieces out I then had to decide whether I wanted to paint it or stain it. I ended up going with wood stain in order to maintain the texture and applied a pre-stain and three coats of dark wood stain until it was almost black. This took a little more than a day. 

Stained pieces drying

After the pieces were done staining I then assembled the lamp with superglue and glued red wrapping paper on the insides of the wooden panes in order to make the light inside glow red when it's turned on, as well as making the characters look red with the light off. 

Materials:

I chose to use plywood for the lantern in order to recreate that traditional Chinese wooden lantern feeling. I was torn between whether to paint the actual lantern red or to keep it a natural wood color but after some thought, I went with having it glow red so that it would project the Chinese characters (yes those are Chinese symbols!) onto the wall when it was turned on in a dark room. I used superglue to adhere all the sides together and red gift wrapping paper for the red paper inside. I wanted to have some kind of paper incorporated into the lantern to pay homage to the Chinese traditional paper lanterns used during festivities. 

Render + Laser cutting curves

Render + Orthographic information