Steve Sun Instagram for posting projects: @steve_makes_whatever
Continuing the journey of the past few weeks, I decided to keep exploring the idea of making something vivid and lively in the most minimalist way possible. I found that eyes are the best way of achieving that during the past weeks. So I decided to fully explore the potential of the eyes.
I designed the characters from a very simple geometric shape, with two big round eyes near where they are supposed to be.
I first cut out the shapes in different materials using the band saw and shaped them with the belt sander, and then tried to laser the design or the socket of the eyes into the materials.
I quickly realized that this might be a terrible idea since first, different materials react to laser very differently, so the cut depth was not consistent at all, especially when I did multiple passes in order to engrave deeper. Also, everybody looked like they need some sleep out of the laser, and the black smoke goo was kind of hard to remove later. So I decided to not laser anymore.
Now, since acrylic does not like to cut well on the power tools, I had to not only cut the outlines but also the eye sockets on my material.
little hiccups during the process, the debris got accumulated in the process of cutting the outline, and when the machine turned the corner, it was too fast it blew out of the back. So I had to finish it up on the band saw and the sander.
this is what they look like out of the other mill. way nicer.
next step was to make the eyes out of some scrap acrylic. I did a bit of tolerance testing to get a good friction fit. I also put a piece of cut paper underneath the acrylic so the texture of the wood doesn’t come through too much.
I also made some custom paper boxes from a plan maker online. I was not able to find free plans so I just traced the pdf in Rhino.
I also did this. which is I would say the point of the boxes, that I poke holes in the boxes so it shows the eyes.
this is most of the figures I was able to make. they are (top left to bottom right): walnut, 2x side grain plywood, regular plywood, oak, maple, pine and cork. I also have an acrylic and a cardboard one.
