DRAWINGS OF THE NESTED SOLIDS:
DRAWINGS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL SOLID:
Octahedron – Air
Hexahedron – Earth
Tetrahedron – Fire
Star tetrahedron (Merkaba) – the energetic body of the human being, the blending of Heaven and Earth, and Male and Female.
PROCESS:
PERSONAL REFLECTION:
My first plan for this assignment was to create a dodecahedron at the most outside and a sandglass of two tetrahedrons, which contains small octahedron and cube. The meaning for my original plan was to represent the creation of world. The dodecahedron represents the universe and the two tetrahedrons represent Big Bang. Because of Big Bang (the explosion; fire), the world was created and therefore there is hexahedron (Earth) and octahedron (air) inside the fire. However, after talking with Jose, he recommended me to create a star tetrahedron with the small octahedrons and hexahedrons inside. Jose’s suggestion was a new direction, expect for using the octahedron and hexahedron being inside the tetrahedron, therefore the meaning totally changed, but I thought it would be interesting to experiment with different shapes.
It was my first time to work with such materials and to make such polygons and it was truly demanding for me. It was exiting to experiment with cardboard, wire, bristol, and straws when I was making the prototype. However, I think I was afraid of making a mistake when I am working with the final materials. From the beginning of class, we’ve learned how to draw polygons, but I never imagined our first assignment would be to come up with our own unique nested solid.
The process that I experienced was interesting yet demanding because I’ve underwent numerous trials and errors. I made the template for the tetrahedron and went to the laser cutting center, but the woods are almost burned out. Therefore I had to search for other material and decided to use soft wood, which was easily fragile. The bending machine in the making center did not worked well so I had purchase another sheet metal, cut individual triangles of octahedron, and connect them with wire. My most difficulty was to make the hexahedron fit perfectly inside the tetrahedron. The cube fit exactly when I created my prototype, but it did not worked well for my final nested solids. I wonder if I should have used thicker pipe or thicker wire for the hexahedron. Moreover, I used wire for all my connections and it was difficult to make a neat connection especially when I had to connect the tetrahedrons to make a star tetrahedron. Lastly, my wood was broken while I was carrying my nested polygon to class because someone bumped into me. I feel upset about this because I had to used super glue to connect the broken woods.
Throughout the project, I learned a lot about my surroundings because I never knew that our nature is this perfectly created. Furthermore, I learned how to be more careful and precise when producing something because I realized even 0.01 inch error makes the whole polygon a mess. I envisioned my nested solid to fit each other perfectly, which did not, but I am satisfied with my solid expect for the cubes. This project required enormous effort and time and even though I struggled a lot throughout the process, it was a thought-provoking and worthwhile project.