Miscellanoeus Experiments
A Puzzle of Puzzled People
Remember the display shelf? Somewhere along the way, I found myself revisiting the illustration I had made for it. The figures already had these absurdly puzzled expressions, and I couldn't quite leave them alone.
So I went back, made a few edits, added more hands, and played around with the composition until the illustration evolved into a puzzle of puzzled people with puzzling thoughts!
I then turned the illustration into a laser-cut cardboard puzzle. I enjoyed working on this just as much as I did the shelf itself. What started as a visual detail in one project became an experiment of its own, with the characters' expressions and the puzzle pieces adding another layer of fun to the process.
Acrylic Paint Markers and a Little Colour
After all the machines, settings, and material tests, this was a different kind of fun. I got to experiment with acrylic paint markers, and honestly, it made me feel like a happy child being handed a bunch of colours and told to go wild. No complicated setup, no troubleshooting, just colouring and enjoying the process.
It was a nice reminder that making doesn't always have to involve fabricating something from scratch or figuring out how a machine works. Sometimes, sitting down with a few colours and playing around is just as satisfying.
I would love to revisit this puzzle someday, perhaps as a laser-cut acrylic version with different opaque colours, or even as a birchwood coffee-table puzzle. Something you could leave on a table and watch people get equally puzzled trying to put it together. Just a thought for another day!
The Wooden Boxes That Need a Makeover
The CNC-cut stackable wooden units from Week 7 were next in line for a makeover. After all the machining, assembly, and press-fit experiments, I wanted to see how they would look with a bit of colour.
We did start painting them, but the wood workshop was not exactly the most inviting place to do it. Too much heat, too little ventilation, dust, and barely enough light made the whole process exhausting. We eventually had to call it quits before finishing.
So, the painted boxes remain a work in progress. I would still like to finish them, preferably somewhere that doesn't make painting feel like an endurance test.
Folding Foil
Origami was bound to find its way here. Building on my Wildcard Week experiments, I wanted to see what would happen if I engraved a pattern onto a foil sheet using the xTool M1 and then folded it by hand.
Folding the foil was quite a challenge. It needed a different kind of handling compared to paper, and the familiar folding process suddenly felt a lot less familiar. But the result was rewarding. The finished form looked more like a tiny sculpture than its paper counterpart, which was an interesting outcome in itself.
It was a small experiment in taking something I already enjoy doing and approaching it through a different material. Turns out, changing the material changes the whole experience.
A Cardboard Material Board (Almost!)
Ashtami, Ardra, and Archita worked on putting together this material board exploring different types of cardboard. They collected samples of different thicknesses and flute configurations, mounted them on cards, and labelled them for comparison. The idea was to create a small reference board to see and feel the differences between them.
The plan was to include more varieties, but we couldn't find enough different types of cardboard to complete the board. So, this one remains a work in progress. Turns out, finding cardboard is easy; finding *varieties* of cardboard is another story!
And That's a Wrap (For Now)
Looking back, these little detours were a mix of things I enjoyed, things that tested my patience, and things that left me wondering what else I could do with them. Not everything got finished, and not every experiment needs to become a project. Sometimes, trying something out is enough to make you curious about the next thing.
And with that, I am wrapping up my Fab Academy and community project documentation. There are still ideas to revisit, materials to experiment with, and probably a few more questionable things to try just because I can. For now, I'll leave these here as little reminders of what happens when curiosity gets its hands on the tools.
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