Week of 3/23 - 3/27

Last week, I began designing a holder for my sister's gymnastics medals. Last week, I completed and cut out the design of the holder.

` The first version of the design I made, I cut out in cardboard to test the size and functionality of it. After doing this, I found it was a little too big; the heart shape I made was wider than the 1/8" wood panels we have for the laser cutter. Since it was too big, I redesigned it to make it an inch smaller all around. This made it a perfect size to cut out.

I also designed hooks for the medals to hang on. I tested my initial design for the hanger, and it was a perfect size. After doing this, I printed out 9 more hooks for a total of 10 hooks for her to hang her medals on. The first time I attempted to print it, the print failed. Luckily, the print succeeded on my second try.

After printing the hooks, I sanded them all down to rough up the surface and prepare them to be spray-painted. This proved to be a tedious task just because the hooks were pretty small and there were 10 of them. But it was easy, and I was able to apply a coat of spray paint on it the same day. Right now, I have the hooks spray-painted white, but I think I'm going to change it to a different color so it contrasts more with the color of the hanging plate.

As for the wooden pieces I cut before, I began sanding and preparing them to be painted and glued in between applying the coats of paint to the hooks. The design consists of 3 layers of wood, one for the holes, sandwiched between a solid heart to close the holes in the middle, and a top layer with an outline of the heart that sits on top of the layer with the holes. I sanded the top 2 layers and left the bottom one since it wouldn't be painted in the end. I glued all of these layers together and the next day, I brought in spray paint to paint the assembled hanging board. I was between painting it silver and gold and after a few tests on a different piece of wood, I found that I liked the silver a lot more than the gold when it was painted. I now need to figure out what color I want to paint the hooks and the name on top of the hooks. I'm hoping to have the hooks and name glued in and painted by Friday so I can take this project home soon.