A Visual Display of Improvement

“No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that's the exciting part.”

― Tiger Woods

This year for Christmas I wanted to make friends and family a functional and nice addition to their house. While brainstorming an idea that could be easily reproduced and affordable, I came across an old project that I had made before I had even started university. I looked at it and cringed. I looked at it again and I started to get some ideas on how I could make it so much better. Alas, I had my idea.

Started from the bottom

The original idea came when occurred when I was going through this weird obsessions with lightbulbs? I'd just watched the Lightbulb Conspiracy, I thought they were a cool symbol. I also was just learning to use a jigsaw at this point.

Fun fact, I entered this build in a contest on Instructables and got featured in a magazine for it.

Later one while in school I learned about the joys of laser cutting and decided to attempt this concept using a laser. I also decided to mix it up with the style of light bulbs.

I could not for the life of my find that third build.

Consider this the evolved Pokemon

This project is an interesting visual of how my process and aesthetic ability has evolved over the years. When starting the redesign I created a few quick sketches and it was off to the shop. As a very hands-on individual, I'd rather build quick mockups.

Things I needed to figure out.

1. How to make pin legs

2. Build brackets that could securly hold these pin legs (that turned out to be very stiff)

3. the angles the legs should be posisitoned at

4. What vessels that would hold the plants

I managed to make pin legs by cutting up 3 ft long steel rods from Home Depot into 1 foot long rods, marking the middle, and bending them around a socket using old tubes for leverage.

Next came figuring out the angles of the legs, as you can see here; no angle, no bueno. after a couple of iteration, which can be seen in the second picture. I found my angle. The angle also helped in prove the overall aesthetic of the shelve making it less boxy.

With the legs figured out, I looked at what could hold the plants. Lightbulbs felt to bulbs for this build and so off to google I went. After some looking, I came across test tubes and was sold instantly. They were sleek and complimented the pin legs. I also go two cases at Michales for 75%, and that may have influenced my decisions a bit.

In order to stop them falling through the holes i woul drill in the wood I printed and painted snap caps. The last things to do is to laqure the wood and paint the legs and brackes black before assembling them.

After the holidays, I will be posting instructions on Instructables.

Cheers

Yaz