This project was an exploration in creating the most implied volume, visually, from a single piece of standard 4/4 thick walnut.
The acrylic supports were surprising one of the more difficult aspects of this project to figure out because of the brittle nature of the thin acrylic sheets.
I wanted the acrylic spacers around the wooden rings to be snug, but the earliest versions would snap under the slightest pressure. I solved that problem by adding a rounded radius in the gaps and making the gap distances a hairline thinner.
I was worried about maintaining crisp edges and consistent widths of the walnut rings, so I decided to complete the sanding and surface finish of the top and bottom of the rings before I laser cut them out. I treated the surface with WaterLox Original satin finish.
I chose to start with a standard stock width piece of walnut that was 4/4 (or roughly 1 inch wide) x 12" x 21" and cut the one board into three thinner boards. I chose a piece with a lot of sap wood because I wanted a variety of color and I took great measures to keep the grain direction consistent. However, I think I'll do a solid color next time because I found it more distracting than I had anticipated.
The wooden rings are nested to minimize material usage. I could have probably saved more material, but the material that wasn't included in the rings could become part of another project. The tape was to prevent black marks on the already finished top and bottom surface of the rings.
The jig was laser cut out of 1/4" Baltic birch plywood. To minimize chipping the walnut rings when turning them on the lathe, substitute rings filled in where there would eventually be gaps. This picture shows the tape still on the rings for the dry run, but I ended up taking it off before I actually turned it.
If you've ever done wood turning before, you would know that there are a lot of shavings at the end. Not so with this particular process.
I ended up deciding to frost the sides of the acrylic spacers by sanding the acrylic sheets down before cutting them out of the laser cutter. I think next time I will try something funky like a neon color and keep the wood a solid color.
Because the inner profile was an ellipse, the curves had more variance than the outside profile.
Created in Rhino3D.
Cut out on a Cricut.
Images provided by Nichole Cross.
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Inspired in part by the mechanism of paper kaleidocycles, this prototype iteration of a side table collapses into a flat circle in a surprising folding motion.
3/4" polypropylene, 1/2" tempered glass
24"H x 24"D
Designed by Nichole Cross
Forgive the vertical composition but this foam core prototype shows how the table folds mechanically.
I like to play around with combining organic and geometric form. This is a foam model. Despite the sharper lines the form was dictated by what felt good in people's hands. Though I did some preliminary sketches, most of my explorations were done by carving foam but I can't seem to find a picture of the foam models.
Playing around with how to best illustrate objects with vector graphics: varied stroke widths, terminals on the ends of arrows, fonts and shading, etc.