Group show of our writing machines

Thought I'd update about our group show. Last night, at the Borland Project Space at PSU we gave a few minutes talk about our various writing machines. I did a larger version of what I had done previously which was a whirligig based on this Felix the cat design (image of vintage one I used as inspiration). I'll be adding more photos soon (phone is charging/photos are on there).

My first design was very simple (as in a hole drilled in the wood, with an axl to turn the arms. The class discussion encouraged me to go farther. Someone mentioned strings and I was like, strings...I started to think of puppets and gribber grabber toys.

This involved a spring set up, figuring out how to add support/string mechanisms as well as how to attach this. I used a PVC pipe to act as a connector and put wire and string in there. I was surprised it worked, honestly as I just used tough string. I then made hand pieces by using my jigsaw for the wood pulleys and sanded them down. I also added an image I coverted to vector and had laser printed. This was a 1920's comic of Felix.

I was sweating bullets over this process (getting it laser printed) but I had help and that made it go very smoothly. I definitely want to do this again...seriously fun once you get the idea. What thrilled me the most was this 1920's image being laser printed nearly 100 years later. Pretty awesome! I'll probably spend a fortune on this if I'm not careful.

I used a really cool youtube video on how to make any jpeg into a vector image:

Here's a great informative site we got from class about raster vs. vector . A big part of this for me was seeing how we can hone in our skills from very traditional parts like wood working, using springs, figuring out how things work (or don't work) as well as incorporating skills such as using Illustrator, CAD and Laser printing. It felt like a bridge was crossed and one that really enriches our technical skills. For my self, I really appreciated this.