As the WIP show day was approaching and we had to consider what we were going to showcase, I couldn't help but feel I needed more. As happy as I was with the side table designs, they didn't quite look like finished, sophisticated objects. Even though the objects didn't have to be finished for the show, I knew this was my last chance to experiment as much as I wanted. I talked to Oscar for some inspiration, and he showed me a couple of designs from different designers. He then showed me designs of shelves, which I found to be in alignment with what I was doing.
I started taking inspiration from various Jain symbols, and the srivatsa symbol, aka the endless knot, caught my attention. It is a symbol seen in many cultures and religions. Keeping the limited time in mind, I decided to go with it and turn the symbol into a bookshelf. I chose a bookshelf as great importance is given to knowledge in Jainism. It also paired well with the reading table designs.
I started by printing the design and ideating on how I could make this with wood. For my first prototype, I decided to use the same slot technique I used to make the reading table. Since I wanted to mimic the look of a knot, I placed the slots alternately to mimic the knot design. I laser cut the pieces on wood in a 1:10 ratio. As I was assembling the 6 pieces together, I realised the middle piece was stuck and didn't fit in the structure because of the placement of slots.
I then worked on the second prototype where all the slots were on the same side. The structure came together very quickly and easily. Looking at how easily it came together, I thought how much I was complicating the design unnecessarily.
As the second design was successful, I decided to make the final structure to scale using 6 wooden pieces. I worked on the digital file for CNC. I used the tools I knew to make all slots identical and of equal lengths. I thought the digital files were ready to go, but soon I was made aware of the mistakes in my digital file by the Digital Fabrication team. The measurements had to be accurate; otherwise, it could compromise the stability of the structure. I was also introduced to many other measuring tools I could use to make my designs accurate. It was silly of me to not optimise the tools since the digital work became a lot faster, accurate and easier with the tools. I redid the digital file and sent it for CNC.
After the pieces were CNCed, I started to assemble them. As I was assembling the pieces together, I realized the importance of accuracy as the pieces were fitting together perfectly. Even a difference of a millimeter would have made the structure wobbly. The structure was coming together as I had hoped, although it didn't quite look as sophisticated as I wanted it to be.
The color of the wood was looking a bit dull. The structure wasn't looking as bold as I wanted it to be. It was too big, and I felt stuck. I thought it would look better after I finished it, but I realized the height and width of the structure would make it too difficult for the knot design to be prominent. As I was talking to technicians and Oscar about the problem, I was getting less and less confident.
It was soon clear that I had to remake the whole thing as I had rushed into it without making all the necessary decisions. It had to be considered as third prototype that I could learn from.
I was thinking about how I could reuse the wood since it was a lot, and I didn't want to waste any of it. I realized how big of a mistake I had made and tried to undo it. Although there was nothing I could really do since the dimensions were different. The wood had to be repurposed by the workshop. I felt really bad about the whole thing. I took advice from technicians and took my next steps carefully. I thought about every little thing before jumping into the final product.
I thought about the dimensions and decided to make it a little smaller. I considered the width of the wood; there was a little back and forth while making the decision to keep one wood or stick two woods together to increase the width. I went ahead with sticking two pieces together as the knot design, which was crucial, would only be prominent then. This design decision, of course, required double the wood that I was going to use initially, and hence I needed to justify it. I felt bad using up so much wood, but I got over it since I had to make the best use of the wood now. I couldn't afford to waste any more wood or make another mistake. Contrary to my prototype, I kept CNC as a last step this time. I reworked the wood to make it look as sophisticated as possible. I also made a digital file of the life-size model to see how it would look in real life. I was happy with the design and went ahead with the making process.
Final Product - Rework on the wood
I sanded 12 pieces of wood to remove the wax and existing color, which was more suitable for flooring instead of a shelf. It was in the tone of grey, which wasn't the right color for my design.
The rework on the color also gave me the benefit of retouching if anything happened to the surface during the making process.
I tested a few stains on wood and found walnut to be the best shade. It was time-consuming and exhausting to sand 12 pieces. I did 4 pieces at a time and stained them, which was also a rest time for my hands.
While staining the wood, I learned that it is necessary to move the brush in the direction of the grain.
I wanted it to be a little darker, so I did the second coat after I felt the stain was dry, which was after 30 minutes.
The wait time to reapply the stain on the packaging was longer, but after talking to technicians, it didn't feel like it made much difference. The key is just to wait until it's completely dry.
After the second coat was dry, it was time to stick the pieces together. I applied sufficient wood glue on the back sides of the wood and stuck 2 pieces of wood together.
The key part here was making sure that the surface on which the wood is drying is straight.
This was important so that the wood dries straight, which makes the CNC process a lot easier. From previous experiences with CNC, I learned that it's tougher to secure the wood in place if it is warped. I covered this whole process in 3 days. It took an additional 2 days for wood pieces to completely dry.
The wood looked sophisticated after the rework, and I was confident that the structure would look great with these pieces. I redid the digital file with a few changes in dimensions. This time, the CNC job was to cut slots and also trim the edges to give it a more finished and even look. After the pieces were cut in the CNC, it was time to assemble.
I was not disappointed as the assembled structure exceeded my expectations.
Now it was time to make the diagonal sides. I needed 8 square wooden pieces to complete the structure. I already had 4 leftover pieces from the primary structure which could be cut to the right dimension. For the rest 4, I used 4 smaller wood pieces and stuck them together to make 2 final reworked wood. Each wood piece had 2 diagonal piece dimensions.
I decided to have marquetry on all the diagonal pieces. This would give an identity to the final structure. I was a bit confused since I wanted the focal point to be the knot design at the front. I decided to go ahead with marquetry since it wouldn't steal the attention but add depth to the design. I chose auspicious symbols for each diagonal piece and made the digital file accordingly. It was a little tricky to choose the right wood for it since the designs were intricate. The one I chose first turned out to be the wrong choice since the wood kept breaking as I was trying to push it in. I chose a stronger and less fragile wood later and redid the laser cut on it. The wood was getting pushed in perfectly without breaking, although it was of a different dimension. This caused the marquetry to rise up. In order to level it up, my only choice was to sand. Sanding the wood to level up marquetry also removed a lot of stain on the wood. This was a huge problem because a lighter sanded shade wouldn't be consistent with the rest of the structure. I brainstormed with the technicians to solve this, and a lot of ideas were floating around like coating wax on the marquetry design and staining the wood to preserve the color of the marquetry design. Another option, which I was inclined to try, was staining the whole thing.
I was afraid that the marquetry wouldn't be as visible or effective, but I was made to realize that since the base wood and marquetry wood are different, they would soak the stain differently, and hence there would still be a color difference. I tried it out and, to my surprise, it looked great. It gave the design a burnt vintage look.
After the pieces were ready to be joined to the structure, there were a bunch of ideas floating around on which joinery would be the most apt. I was concerned since I had little to no experience in joineries. I usually used screws, slots, or glue to hold two pieces together, none of which would be appropriate for this piece. The possible options were dovetail method, biscuit, or domino joinery. I was hearing these for the first time and was very nervous about it. I didn't want to mess anything up at this stage. I talked to technicians about it and learned about these methods, their pros and cons.
After a lot of discussions, the most apt for my design was using domino joinery. The machine for domino joinery looked a little intimidating. The whole process looked difficult. I chose the right domino size for my pieces and cut them in half according to my requirement. I sanded the edges so that they would go in easily. I then started marking where the holes should be in each piece. As I was doing it, I felt more in control and at ease. Using the domino machine was tough at the beginning. I tried a couple of times on spare wood pieces to make sure I knew what I was doing. Since the holes had to be made on different sides, I had to use the machine differently for each side. I used the machine vertically and horizontally to get what I wanted.
One thing that I learned while using the machine was to not lean the body forward as I was pushing the drill to make the hole. That was both dangerous and ineffective. I had to keep my body still and only use my arms.
After using the machine a couple of times, I got used to it, and I was enjoying it. It was very satisfying to join the pieces together perfectly. I used a mallet to push the pieces in place.
As the entire structure was coming together, I was more and more proud. I am completely satisfied and happy with it. It looks so peaceful and calming yet so bold. I love it.
The last step to finish the design is to make the knot pattern using wood tape. The symbol has 3 parallel lines moving together to form the symbol. It is for a reason that there are either 3 lines or 1 line. Only 3 or 1 line can complete the structure in an endless way. This is important to its core idea which is infinite knowledge. I realized this when I was attempting to prototype the structure using two different colored tapes. While making the knot, the second tape will have an ending point which will break the flow of the endless knot. Now with this prototype, I had a decision to make:
1 colored tape will blend and will have no knot effect.
2 colored tape will have an endless knot effect with one endless path and one path that ends.
3 colored tape will knot effect with endless paths but not as prominent because of thinner tapes.
I chose the second option as the design would look prominent and it shows two different worlds within its design. Us with finite knowledge and gods with infinite.
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