Make a press-fit construction kit
I made a cardboard puzzle prototype in a motif of round patterns
that is often used for textile, Noren (short split
curtain) and Fusuma (sliding door) in Japan.
From left to right: Maru-mon (round shape), Han-en (semi-circle), and Suhama (wavy form).
These patterns were traced and added some slits with a drawing tool, and then placed on the software, CorelDraw. The prototype was cut out from 1 mm cardboard by laser cutter (GCC LaserPro Venus 12 W). The settings were low speed and medium power (e.g. speed 2 / power 72).
Samples of cardboard puzzle.
Before attending this class, we have manufactured Modular Tree for the exhibition in Kids Plaza Osaka, a museum for children in Osaka, last summer. Modular Tree series were designed in the Hiroya Tanaka Laboratory. The project is seeking a medium between furniture and sculpture by a combination of digital fabrication and parametric design.
Modular Tree (right) in Kids Plaza Osaka (2013).
My cardboard puzzle is influenced by Modular Tree, however, not parametric design. I will learn parametric design later and make the use of cutting-edge cutting technique for connecting the modules of my project.
Install Fab Module
I installed the Fab Modules on the Mac OS X by following
the tutorial. The Fab Modules are software
platform for personal fabrication developed by the MIT Center
for Bits and Atoms with the Fab Lab Network. Before installing
the Fab Modules we need to install the following packages I
listed below. Homebrew,
the missing package manager for OS X, is quite useful for
installing these packages except wxPython.- wxPython (GUI toolkit for Python)
- Boost (C++ source libraries)
- CMake (cross-platform, open-source build system)
- libpng (PNG reference library)
- giflib (library for processing gif images)
Screen capture of Fab Module.
