Taking chances
February 16th
On the way to our 4th meeting at SDX, I was working on separating all the layers into separate .svg files, and adding numbers onto each piece, so that I can engrave them and not mix them up when cut.
At the meeting, I was reminded of the strict regulations when it comes to selling electronics, which means I will need to pay extra attention to Health and Safety, conduct rigorous research, as well as speak to experts such as lecturers and technicians at the university.
Some alternate options suggested, in case the soldering electronics route did not work out, were to use a battery (this one I don’t feel comfortable with), or a glow-in-the-dark product (this might be possible to find an eco-friendly version of) instead, as the light may not be visible during daylight anyway.
Some other suggestions were regarding the “terrarium” dome material – I thought the idea of using wires instead of rigid plywood (or other) layer is brilliant, but I will need to test it and find the best wires for it.
The cardboard 1:4 scale prototype was welcomed, and I was told to try to use it as the rustic look and eco-friendliness of cardboard may fit very well with the product. Of course, it will not be waterproof, which is an important consideration.
What I will need to do for next week:
- test preserving moss
- test laser cutting the cardstock
- design the dome
- test using wires, plywood layers, other for dome
- write bio
- design logo, marketing
- look into electronics compliance regulations, Health and Safety
- test soldering LED lights
- 3D CAD test the .svg layers (holes for electronics)
February 18th
Today I finally tested the moss preservation method.
First I watched some videos to be clear on what I needed to do, then I gathered a large metal bowl, a large plastic box lid, an old towel, the moss I collected, and the bottle of glycerin.
To clean the moss, I poured some warm water into the bowl and placed all the moss into it, then let it sit for a little while. I then used a tweezer and tried to collect as many of the impurities (tiny twigs, leaves, bugs) as I could. I then collected the moss into a separate small container for temporary storage, and poured the water out. I cleaned the bowl, and repeated this process two more times.
When the moss was relatively clean, I poured some glycerin to the clean warm water in the bowl, mixed them up, and added the moss. I then let it soak in the liquid solution for about half an hour, before carefully collecting it and laying it out onto the towel to let it dry.
Unfortunately, the moss has by this point almost completely come apart into its tiny individual bits, which made the process longer, and my confidence to shatter. Not having the moss in larger sheets means the small bits are more than 2/3 dirty roots, which upsets the pretty green colouring I was going for. It will also make it very time-consuming to glue onto the laser-cut layers.
This means I may have to purchase the moss already preserved, which will add to costs, but will make sure that it is professionally done and looks its best. The types of moss I found may also not have been a good choice for this idea.
I do plan on going on another adventure, and collecting some more, hopefully larger pieces, then trying this process again. If the first preserved batch will start to lose its vibrant green colour, I will try to add some green food colouring to the glycerin, as many websites have suggested.
I continued the work on the Adobe Illustrator layer files, by adding dashed lines where the layer on top will go, to engrave it, as well as the layer number, so that I can make sure they will all go where they belong when assembling.
When I was ready with the .svg files, I started inserting them into the Fusion360 CAD programme one by one, adding a 3mm thickness to each layer. Very early on I realized that in order to make sure I place all the small pieces where they need to go, I will have to have some sort of baseline, which is why I added a line to the side and bottom of each .svg layer (to make the entire image 150×100 mm).
When inserting the vector files into CAD, even though theoretically the sizing was the same, I had to scale them up by 1.33315, and after the first layer turn each one 180 degrees.
After about a dozen I started seeing that 3mm thickness may be too much for the intricacy of the details.
Once I added some materials to the 3-dimensional shapes and rendered the design, I finally saw what it could look like and was very satisfied with the result.
Next, I added one 1.5 mm optical fibre to the smaller waterfall on the left and two to the feature waterfall.
I did this so that I could design where the holes for the LED diodes should go.
February 19-21st
A quick lesson on wiring:
LED diode bead polarity:
- TBD
- Leg with pinhole: – ? (cathode)
- Leg without pinhole: + ? (anode)
USB cable colour coding:
- Black: Grounding (-)
- Red: +5V
- Green: Data –
- White: Data +
With the help of my university I purchased a soldering helping hand with a magnifying glass and LED illumination, as well as some CO2 fire extinguisher. Safety first. They also bought me the requested plywood and preserved moss. I am currently unsure if the modelling coarse sand was purchased already.
I decided to try the store-bought preserved moss because my little experiment seemed to not have worked out very well.
The moss I preserved are mainly in very small pieces, and only one type (the one in the middle) seems to fit the criteria of looking like teeny-tiny trees from afar. I only collected a small amount of this, and will need to find where I gathered this. I would still like to use my own, and it will give me an excuse to go on another wee adventure.
Another thing I researched today was an eco-friendly product to stain the wood a teal-blue colour in order to make the waterfall.
I found a method here, where they use vinegar which had steel wool soaked in it to “paint” onto the wood, which makes it an almost perfect shade due to some chemical magic I do not understand fully. This is apparently ancient knowledge, people use it to make faux “barn wood”.
I found white vinegar at home, but the only steel wool I had was those pads I sometimes use for cleaning heavily stained burnt pots, which have been pre-soaked in soap. I was so excited I forgot about this and put it in the jar filled with vinegar, without cleaning it in water first. Because of this the vinegar smell mixed with the scent of the soap and it was not as unpleasant and overwhelming as I thought it might be.
After about an hour, the liquid changed to a brownish colour, which was a good sign, and I tested it immediately.
After another hour or so (with two layers applied) the colour has changed, but not significantly. I applied yet another layer to see if it gets any darker.
The uni ordered some actual clean steel wool for me, which I hope will work a lot better, but it is already promising.
Next, I worked on perfecting the 3D CAD design. I added a wire “cage” to enclose the entire sculpture, changed the materials to look more like what it will look like in real life, changed the waterfall to be more similar to the photograph, added a few more base layers (because the entire sculpture would be about 5-6 cm in height, which I found too short).
At the back, I added the LED diodes and the switch, in order to cut out the space needed to house them from the plywood sheets.
My plan is to finish the CAD to perfection, add then extract the vector drawings, place them on a 20×30 sheet in Adobe Illustrator as close to each other as possible to save material, and cut them out of the plywood.
I will need to figure out how to solder all the pieces together so that the wiring is not exposed.
February 22nd
I have been working on the CAD for days, and still I’m not done.
Today I’ve been perfecting the layers to accommodate the LED electronics, and I believe I’ve finally cracked “the code”.
Exciting update! I just received most of the materials my university kindly ordered for me! I feel so grateful and SO excited.
The things I received:
- Steel wool (which is soft like a pillow, too bad I will need to use it for soaking in vinegar – perhaps I can save some for another project)
- a large spool of 1mm aluminium wire
- 40 sheets of 2mm plywood (as soon as I finished this, I will put some of the steel wool in some vinegar to soak, and use a sheet of plywood to test it)
- a large bag of preserved reindeer moss (that stuff is beautiful and smells so nice! I will need to wait for the wood glue to test how well it sticks – another use for that one sheet of plywood!)
- a 4-arm fantastic quality (or so it looks like before assembly) soldering helping hand with an adjustable LED ring – fancy stuff! Can’t wait to build this.
The only thing I’m a little put out by is all the plastic used to package this stuff. Amazon really needs to reconsider how they communicate to the sellers on their platform the importance of the preservation of our planet. Oh well.
After assembling the helping hand with the LED ring magnifying glass, I promptly decided I am never taking it off my desk and will use it forever for all kinds of shenanigans, due to the fact that I am blind as a bat.
Testing the aluminium wire, I now realize that the 1mm may have been too thin a choice for what I want to do with it – creating a sort of pretty wire “cage” to hug the back of the entire statue.
However, I played around with it and realized that by twisting two strands together, or even braiding three, I can get a really nice visual effect and a stronger wire. Braiding would take quite a bit of time, so perhaps twisting three might be the way to go. I just need to be careful that it looks relatively uniform.
When I opened the bag of moss and touched it, it felt quite damp, and had an earthy-plant-y scent.
But when I took a large piece out I noticed a lot of black pieces which seem to be made of plastic or a form of silicone? I’m not quite sure. The moss itself feels and looks real, quite soft, and it was probably artificially coloured because my hands were yellow-green after handling them.
I decided to clean up some of it so that it will be easier to use for the first few models.
So the wood stain I made from the extra fine steel wool (simply purchased because it was cheap) didn’t quite work out with the vinegar I had, on the plywood I ordered.
Not sure what went wrong – is it the steel wool? Is it the fact I left it in the vinegar? Is it the wood that’s different?
I need to figure it out. It would be amazing if I didn’t have to use a chemical blue wood stain product.
I found this website which helps me understand better how the process works, and hopefully figure out how I can fix it.
After some more research I put a teabag in some water and vinegar, and then the steel wool, and I’ll let that stay in the jar for a few hours or a day. I might be too impatient.
I will also purchase some distilled white vinegar which people seemed to have luck with.
However, according to this gentleman, separate application of strong tea, and then the steel wool – distilled vinegar is the key. so that will have to happen tomorrow.
I found some copper coins, put one in some vinegar in a tiny jar. This video made me very excited for the colours I might get from it.
And here are the last updates to the CAD model – created fewer pieces (added some smaller ones together, deleted the smallest when I realized I could just use the moss to make a taller hill), and added holes to lead the 1.5mm fibre optic cables through. Will make space for the electronics next.
Funny update: I counted the individual pieces that will be laser cut for each product. It amounts to exactly 50. I swear I didn’t plan this.
