Computer-Controlled Machining Assignment Week of March 12, 2014: This week's assignment is to "Make Something Big." I am abandoning my human body focus for my garden. Someday I will make a six foot tall model of some organ but given a sheet of plywood, the desire to use a ShopBot and the opportunity to create something beautiful, a trellis comes to mind.	1. First step was to download Inkscape.
2. I searched Google images to remember what actual ginkgo leaves look like and to see artist renditions, especially line drawings of the leaves.	3. Among the images I perused, I discovered Artistic Creation India, a company which "transforms spaces... with laser cutting expertise." Their pattern of ginkgo leaves was very similar to the vision I had in my own head.
4. I spent several hours viewing tutorials and learning about creating tiled clones in Inkscape. I feel the need to download a manual onto my Kindle. The power to the Haystack Fab Lab where the actual ShopBot resides will not be on for a month. That is my design timeline.	5. Here is my leaf drawn with the Bezier tool.
6. Here is my first attempt at creating tiled clones.	7. May 3 - I redesigned the trellis and finally had a file to take to PartWorks and the ShopBot.
8. May 4 - the trellis is created and brought home.	9. May 11: the trellis is painted, the daffodils are blooming, and the weigela is budding out. As is the case with every Fab Lab assignment thus far, I learned everything beginning at a baseline of zero. My Inkscape abilities increased the most at the Fab Lab workshop last weekend when I sat between to my middle school students and they designed a bevy of key chains and coasters. It's all progress. Mickie Flores Home