The making of: The Sample Book

1. Origami

For the first Dense page I wanted to make something that really responds to each other. I got great inspiration from the book binding lady who showed us this book opening:

So I tried the principle out with a simple yellow paper:

I bought some black 300 gram paper and tried it out for real, but I couln't really figure out how it worked and I couldn't find anything about it on internet.

I dind't figured it out, so I started with a new origami project:

Waterfall origami: O [Origami]. (2018). How to make waterfall card easy [Videobestand]. Geraadpleegd van https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5uz7fcU-HA&feature=youtu.be

Needs:

Paper 4x 5x5 cm
Paper photo 4x 4 cm
20 cm paper
Glue

I added something extra for a cute surprise. It works great!

2. Cramped Tiger

For this little project I used the laser cutter and some recycled cardboard from the makers lab.

I came on the idea of a lion because of the Japanese garden I had in my moodboard. I saw a lot of Japanese tigers in the Japanese paintings I found so I would love to make something with a tiger.

It had to be a 3D dense effect with a lot of layers, so it would look like if the tiger really was in a dense situation.

Inspiration:

I came up with this design:

So I went to the laser cutter and cut and engraved a beautiful piece for the sample book.

The settings were a little bit more complicated than the settings I showed you before, here is a picture:

Material settings:

I had to add different settings to the scan layer:

As you can see I had to make different layers, so the machine knew what to cut and what to scan/engrave.

Outcome video:

As you can see I made serveral layers which I will glue on top of each other.

I really love the outcome! It has something dark and dense and that's exactly what I had in mind.

Tip: After the laser cutter was finish I wiped it clean with some dry (toilet)paper, else everything becomes a bit black.

3. Connected flowers

Fot the third page I wanted to create a sort of middle point of the dense - clear situation. So I used flowers in a mild origami way. It's a free feeling with a strong connection between every flower.

The tutorial I used was:

B, B. [Basteln]. (2017). Pop Up Kaarten maken: Bloem - Bloemen maken van papier - Cadeau maken [Videobestand]. Geraadpleegd van https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFkMtX6PX78&feature=youtu.be

Needs:

A few papers
Glue
Decorations (Colorful pens)
Scissor

To get an idea of how I did it:

I was a bit unsure if it would really workout the first time I tried the tutorial, but the flower worked and had a really cool effect.

See the end result here:

Dense - Clear final sample book

4. Cohesive birds

The inspiration for the birds also came from the Japanese garden dense moodboard, but I wanted to make the image more clear with just a minimum connection between everything.

So I came up with this design:

Settings:

Mode

Speed

Power

Output

Material

Cut

Yes

Multiplex 5mm hardhout (wood)

The outcome has turned out fine after some adjustments, because the design is not optimal. A lot of things were cut of and to fragile. I think it's because I wasn't patience enought to check if every line of the design went alright and I ran the laser cutter too fast.

But I had an open mind and worked with the outcome I had. It turned out that it fitted my idea perfectly.

5. Free Sky

I didn't really knew what to do with the last one. So I started to brainstorm about what was not really connected with eachother and what made people truly feel free. I came up with:

Nature
Moon/Sun
Stars
Beaches

I started thinking about surfing and hearing the waves. So I started googling some surf inspirations and guess what... Almost all surfers have a mountain tattoo (So says the internet). I never really climbed a mountain, I live in The Netherlands so I think I can't even imagine what a mountain would look like except really high. But I found a really nice image. Waves are directly connected to eachother, but (I think) mountains are not. So I wanted to mix some beautiful mountains with a starry night.

Inspiration:

Design:

Mountains:

I wanted to cut out the mountains and engrave their shapes and textures in it.

Cut settings:

Mode

Speed

Power

Outcome

Material

Cut

Yes

300 gram paper

Engraving settings

Mode

Speed

Power

Outcome

Scan

400

Yes

Outcome:

The cut function didn't really worked on this on, I think the paper might have been a little more thick than I thought it was. So I had to cut the mountains out myself and make some folding lines. But I really love the engraving and the color of it.