Final Product of Project 2

Where were we...

Once I had figured out what my design would be for my box it was time to find some scrap wood and practice my cuts, buy my wood for the final product and glue it and then finish the project. For the first week and half or so I was broke and unable to buy my wood, leaving me only a week to finish all of it, with the cutting, the gluing, the sanding and adding the coat of finish to it. So until then I made a practice box out of scrap wood.

My practice box went extremely well. Before cutting I asked Cotter and Margie their thoughts and how I should go about cutting my box since it was almost two boxes. Once I started cutting it all came pretty easy to me. Next thing I knew it was all done.

Once I bought my wood for the final product and got it glued up and ready to cut I was a little anxious and nervous, but shook it off and started cutting. I thought I was doing great, and then I realized I did the cuts out of order, leaving me with too small of pieces to fit together and hold my box together the correct way.

In the end I decided my practice box looked good and would be my final product. And I have to say, I am pretty proud of it, even if it is a little shabby and imperfect. It's perfect to me, especially considering I have NEVER used a band saw in my life. I am proud of myself no matter what anyone else thinks about my box. 

The (somewhat) Finished Product

I realized, when it was a little too late, that I only posted once about my vessel project for project two. So here is me playing catch up and informing you about what all went down with my vessel.

After the day of cutting with Cotter it was time to sketch. I quickly had ideas for one item that I was really interested in creating a box for, my flash drives and my external hard drive. I had other ideas for items to go into boxes too like my cards and ID's, pens and pencils and my Ipad mini. But none of them really struck me as fun or gave me as many ideas as my flash drives and external hard drive did. 

After the sketches came prototypes. I went to work on my prototypes quick and was pretty impressed with myself, even though they really weren't that great, but they got the point across. But once I brought them into class everyone kind of had the same thing to say about mine. They are just boxes, nothing big and fancy to them. No organic shapes. All designs that don't have to be done on a band saw, when that's what we should be designing for. Even though they were kind of fun, with sliding sides for openings and one that looked like a robot, they were just an ordinary box. So it was back to the drawing board.

I decided to make a word map and play off the flash drive idea. I looked at my sketches and just thought of things that you associate with flash drives. Computers, technology, usb ports, etc. And then I saw it. I looked at the shape and design of one of my flash drives. It was right in front of me the entire time. A simple rounded box with a curved line in the middle. That would be my box design.

To try and not make this incredibly long, since I still need to add some photos, I'll post the rest of the project on a new post. :)

Messing with blocks; It's a dangerous business

Project 2 is underway in my BDS 102 class and this project is about finding something of value to you and constructing a vessel for that object. The vessel will be some kind of box. Today in class we got to go down to the Common Shop aka our work shop in the design building, and play with the band saw that we will be using and get acquainted with it, along with meeting the various sanders. Here are some photos of what I did on the band saw today, mostly messing with curved lines, really just trying to follow a line that is on the block. 

Cotter, the head hancho in the common shop was beside me and drew a line on my block and said, follow that line. So I tried, I wasn't exactly close to his line, really off actually, but it helped me get to know how the saw works and feels. He gave me a lot of pointers and helped me to understand how it all works and what to do when I start working on my block.

This is where Cotter drew a line and asked me to follow it. I didn't do so well, haha! I'll get better though!

 And this is Cotter's line and his cut, following it almost perfectly. He also has more experience but was demonstrating for me.