This week, I attempted to tackle the obstacle that I have been struggling most with, which is casting a crisp shadow of my shapes on the wall.

When I first experimented with my maquette, I saw that the shadow which was being cast was very blurred and not intricate enough. I had decided that the large and defused bulbs were the problem, so I decide to buy smaller and brighter bulbs with a clear enclosing. When I tested the new bulbs with the maquette, the shadow was a little better, but not exactly what I wanted.

My next obstacle to tackle was finding a perfect lamp size to bulb size ratio. I also discovered that the bulb used should be much smaller in size compared to the shading component. So, I either had to buy smaller bulbs or make my lamp shade much larger. Since the bulbs were more expensive, I went with a bigger shade.

To summarize my experience with this project this past week, I can only say that it ended in failure. I did not take into account humidity when dealing with my wooden material. I had purchased more wooden boards three days before my laser-cutting appointment, and the boards warped to the point where the laser cutter could not properly cut my shapes. I had to stop the cutting process so I wouldn’t ruin the laser-cutter, and was left with only 3 out of 6 pieces fully and properly cut.

Moral of the story, I didn’t even get to experiment the larger shade with the new bulb. I will have to set up a new laser-cutting appointment to cut the rest of the pieces, and then I will find out if I’ll have to buy smaller bulbs. Trial and error is a very expensive process.