I created the design for the face of the lamp in illustrator and got to work testing it out on the laser cutters. Although I had used them before in a previous project, I wanted to see what the different line thickness would look like as etches on the surface. It turned out that the printer registers anything under .5 stroke as hairline and will cut through the material. 

I also started designing the overall container. I drew the individual teeth to connect the finger joints in illustrator, although, afterwards I learned from another student that there is a website -- makercase.com-- that will do it for you. Oops.  Learning moment. 

I also spent some time learning about living hinges. I know I settled on a rectangular shape for my lamp, but that was merely because I didn't know how else to create spherical shapes out of wood. Living hinges offered a chance to make more rounded shapes with cool patterns, but I was already deep into the project. I tested out a print while I was putting together my box just to experiment. Ultimately, the hinge was too small and brittle to utilize. Maybe next time.