ITERATION & REFINTEMENT
PROCESS BOOK Alecia McEachran
INITIAL IDEAS
What forms am I attracted to? I love geometric forms and would love to create a lamp utilizing shape and lineality.
What type of light fixture would I like to create? I would like to create a table lamp that is mostly enclosed, but allows light to shine through.
What materials would I like to use? What materials are available to me? I would like to create a lamp out of wood with a dark stain. I have a laser cutter, files, and glue available to use. I would also like to use a soft, dimmable LED light bulb.
What size would I like my structure to be? I would like to create a smaller structure that is approximately a foot tall.
INSPIRATION
These wooden lamps were the inspiration for my structure. I wanted to create something similar in which I utilized geometric forms to create a light fixture. They are very much the size and form I wanted my structure to be.
FINAL IDEA
These were some of my sketches based on the existing lamps I liked. Some of my ideas dealt with making the pieces different sizes or twisting them as you go up, but ultimately decided against some of those ideas as they would not connect together very well.
I decided to stick with something more straight up and down like the images above. My final piece is based on these two lamps.
THINGS TO CONSIDER
As I went along in figuring out how to construct my lamp and working on the prototypes, these are a few questions that I came across.
How am I going to change the lightbulb? Is too much or not enough light coming through? How am I going to cut out the pieces? Where will the cord come out? Are there any other materials I could use? What kind of feet am I going to use on the lamp? How am I going to be able to connect the top piece?
PROTOTYPE #1 I realized I would need some help with cutting out the pieces of my lamp since I did not have the materials needed, so I was able to find someone with a laser cutter that helped me to cut the pieces. The laser cutter was able to cut out the pieces precisely. I used CorelDraw to program the sizes of the pieces.
This prototype is made out of clear acrylic and is a small version of what I would like my lamp to look like. For this prototype, I just glued cut out pieces in between the layers. It was tricky though because I had to line them all up with each other.
I cut out this piece to use to try to line up the spacer pieces, but it was hard to glue the pieces on and not get this red piece stuck. Many times I would try to pull it off and pull off some of the spacer pieces with it. The glue also did not seem to stay super well and the pieces were falling off. It took awhile for it to dry and was very fragile.
What I would like to change in the next prototype: •
Find a new way of attaching the pieces
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Make it full size so I can find other difficulties that may come in the final piece
PROTOTYPE #2
For this prototype, I decided to add the ability to be able to spin the lamp. Above are sketches I made of how I would go about doing this.
This prototype is made to size and is made out of acrylic. To connect the pieces together, I used threaded rod and cut out the black pieces to use as spacers. Since I didn’t have a long enough rod, the clear pieces were used to connect them to each other. I do not have feet on this prototype. This is something I will need to consider in my final lamp. The structure of my final piece will be very much the same as this, but taller, as the light bulb goes to the top of this structure when placed inside.
FINAL LAMP The process for making my final lamp: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Made the layers and the base a little bigger than in the second prototype Cut out the base pieces, 12 square pieces, and circles for the feet and the top of the lamp with the laser Sanded the black (from where the laser burnt the wood) off of the sides of each piece Sanded the tops and bottoms of each piece Drilled a larger hole in each of the beads Stained the beads Stained each of the other pieces Glued the base pieces together Threaded the lightbulb holder into the base piece Glued the feet onto the lamp Cut the threaded rod to about a 11.75” tall Threaded the rods into the base Sanded the holes of the square pieces so they would fit well onto the threaded rod Put all the layers of beads and square pieces onto the rods Measured the exact height needed for the threaded rods Recut the threaded rods to the exact height Threaded the rod into the base and put the layers and beads on the rod again Cut a hole in the top circle pieces Threaded the circle pieces onto the threaded rod Added felt pieces to the bottom of the feet
Cutting out the square pieces with the laser
Beginning to put the lamp together
The final lamp was made of walnut and finished with a darker stain. Here are some images of the final lamp, lit and unlit.
FAILURES Although my final lamp was definitely a success, it came with difficulties along the way. Here were some of the issues I ran into and how I fixed those:
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Prototype 1: Connecting the pieces was difficult and they were not all exact
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I fixed this in my next prototype by using threaded rod instead
Prototype 2: When cutting out the pieces, they did not cut through completely
I slowed down the speed of the laser and made sure the thickness of the
material wasn’t too large for the laser to cut through
Prototype 2: What to use for feet and tops?
In the final I decided to cut out extra pieces to glue onto the bottom and
to thread on the top
Prototype 2: Threaded rod was not long enough
I bought two 3 foot long threaded rods and cut them down to size
in the final
Prototype 2: The spacers were too thin and took too long to drill out
I found some wooden beads that were a good size to use between
the pieces
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Final: Holes were not big enough in the square pieces Had to sand and/or drill the holes larger to fit onto the threaded rod
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Final: Burnt edges on wood pieces
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Final: Sanding the pieces took a long time
I found different things to sand with (sand paper, files, etc.) and had
people help me
Final: Chips in the wood pieces from sanding
I tried to only sand one way and then put the better pieces towards the top
and the chipped parts down
Final: Stain was sticking to paper
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Slowing down the speed helped a little, but mostly had to sand it away
Had to restain some of the pieces
Final: Had to recut the threaded rod (was unsure of size)
I cut the threaded rod, put the lamp together, then measured where to cut
the rod to and had to take it apart, cut the rod, then repiece the lamp
Final: Drilled a hole through one of the top pieces
Luckily I had a few extra pieces and was able to sand it and stain it
and redrill the hole