Clock Project 1

Intention

The idea behind my project came from my love for California and my family. My parents immigrated from China when they were teenagers and grew up in the bay area. To combine two of the most meaningful pieces of my life, I decided to design a dragon onto the California shape. The dragon represents my asian heritage and all of the hardships my ancestors had to go through to allow me to grow up in such a beautiful state. 

Context

I looked up dragon clocks and found many medieval themed dragon designs. I searched "california dragon clocks", and did not find exactly what I was imagining. I decided to create my own idea, using a plain California outline and other chinese dragon drawings for inspiration. 

Process

Outline your approach to the project? What ideas did you generate and how did you refine or reject them? What did you research and explore? what were the design choices? What challenges were encountered and how did you resolve them?

Example of common medieval dragon clock: 

Product

I started by taking a plain California outline and sketching it in fusion 360. 

My next step was to design the dragon. I used this picture as a starting place, but ended up using it as a loose guide to form my own design to adjust for the CA shape. 

Combining the two shapes in fusion 360, I was left with this: 

Finally, I moved onto the laser cutter to decide on my final material design. I made a few iterations: 

My first attempt cut the dragon completely out of the clock. 

My second attempt used the cut through dragon and layered it on top of an identical California acrylic cut. 

My final project used the outer material from the acrylic cut to mount my wooden clock. The dragon is engraved and there is a scored heart at the bottom because no matter where I am, my heart is always with my family in California! 

Reflection

The process of making this clock really made me comfortable with the laser cutter. I had to make multiple iterations and work with the machine to ensure the sizing of each cut was identical. The design process was tedious, but proved that intricate designs can be broken down into small pieces. This also opened my eyes to the myriad of materials that can be combined to create interesting optical effects.