Papercraft and Unfortunate Timing

There is never a good time for a pandemic, and all of the right decisions were made. However, some projects I was passionate about were left uncompleted. I had spent a lot of time on this papercraft project specifically. I was fortunate to have been able to use the laser cutter in our final class before school shutdown. Although I did not get everything printed, I was happy that I would be able to at least finish the basic structure. I was, however, quite wrong.

In creating the body of my guitar, I created two separate halves to act as sort of a lid and container. I added structural support as I discovered it needed in my prototype. It was all looking great, until I picked up both halves of my guitar body at the same time. They were facing the same way... In order to unfold the top half in Rhino, I flipped it so I could have it on the same plane as the other body. Due to an oversight on my part, I did not flip it back after unfolding it. Alongside that, I had somehow cut tabs off every section so there was not enough paper to complete the fold. Instead, I added additonal cut pieces behind both folds, it was however, visually very unappealing and I was not happy with it. I was thrilled with the way one half turned out, and normally I would have been at the laser cutter the week following to reprint the body correcting these oversights.

My next error, was my scale. Everything fit so perfectly in Rhino. My design was "flawless" and I could not wait to put it together. What I did not realize, was how it translated to a physical medium. My frets were borderline invisible, my bridge had a fold line in it but it was barely a piece of paper as a whole. I knew I needed the precision of the laser cutted to enable me to have such accuracy. This would have required me to rethink my design in Rhino after seeing firsthand how tiny and delicate my components were. For this reason, I ruled out hand cutting the materials as I was not confident the end aesthetic would match the vision of the laser cutter I had in my head. Quite frankly, this handcrafted mash up I started was hideous. Hours of work ending in disappointment was not what I was after.

At the end, I was pretty disheartened from all of this. I poured a lot of love into it, and no matter what I did, I knew I could not live up to the precise and clean standard I set myself with the laser cutter. Had I one more week, I would have been able to overhaul the design and repair my oversights. Alas, the world would see it differently. I am so glad everyone took quick action and thankful we seem to be one step ahead of this pandemic, as much as one can be. I felt it best to put this project on the backburner for now. Perhaps when I get my hands on a lasercutter again I can see the vision through. For now, I will be ensuring my family, myself and those close to me are safe and healthy. I hope everyone out there is taking care of themselves and staying responsible for the sake of themselves and the world.