Reed Herne: Week 7 Lava Lamp

As the title would indicate, the inspiration for the shape of my lamp was the original lava lamp. The form I used to derive my contours and radial sections is a slightly shorter and wider base than a typical lava lamp. To keep the design off the ground I allowed four of my radial sections to extend past the bottom contour; however, the lamp can also sit on lower by removing the extended sections. Along with the extended legs I also moved the hole for the light bulb up tot he second to last contour section, keeping the light away from the ground and making for an easier removal of the bulb.

In building the form of the lamp I used the draw curve and revolve tools as well as create cylinder and fillet edge. To cut my cross sections I used the contour, bounding box and section commands. Once I had my cross sections I measured my materials before using Prof. Scott's workflow tutorials to create intersection pipes and split my surfaces to create half lap joints. With my lap joints cut I proceeded to use the massive unroll script to layout my sections and color code them for laser cutting.

In Keyshot I did my best to emulate the color of the wood I used to cut my cross sections. I added an area light to the bulb and an aluminum to the bulb screw for authenticity. By lowering the brightness and raising the contrast of the environment I was able to create a nice shot of my lamp lit up.