Date: Wednesday, 07/22/2026 Saturday, 07/25/2026
Class: Exploratory Making (IMALR-GT 106)
Section: 001 (Beth)
Name: Janice Vuong
Week: Week 2
The Gift I brought was a picture I took of a ornate door/arch/gate I saw when I was walking on way to a restaurant (Çka Ka Qëllue). It stunned me for a moment, because it is an interesting piece of architecture in an uncommon area / neighborhood (Midtown East) that made me stop and stare. It is part of a building that is owned by the Hai-Lan Chinese American Cultural Society.
How you re-engaged with your gift, including what medium you chose and why you chose it, how you went about learning it, and why (1-2 paragraphs)
I think I jumped right into thinking about which medium I haven’t tried before. Since I am comfortable creating things digitally, I knew I wanted to create using a form that is physical. By the time I got to thinking about which tool/machines I had access to the shop floor, it was already Wednesday (07/15).
Figuring out a medium I haven’t used before
1️⃣ Laser Cutting
2️⃣ Wood Making (Wood Shop)
3️⃣ Laser Cutting: Wood
4️⃣ Laser Cutting: Wood & Acrylic (+ Learning Adobe Illustrator!) ✅
At first, I wanted to try Laser Cutting, but then I mistakenly thought the laser cutting machines were down, for all of Wednesday. (it was not, it was just for a few hours, but it caused me to switch to trying out the Wood Shop).
Wednesday (07/15) Evening, I tried to use the band saw for the first time, and I would say it was a 7/10 🪵 experience. Mostly because when I was trying to cut a piece of wood, I didn’t realized how loud it would be! (hearing protection is important!). However, the more important lesson I learn was that, the wood shop and its machines are not scary 👍
Walking home, I remember I had saved a picture of a wood-making class I saw awhile ago, and I thought the class had an interesting subject (wood bow ties inlays). In the program as a whole, I remember I was blogging ↗ about wanting to create a piece that is whimsy, or cute, and bow ties are a shape to me, that is “coquette” and “whimsy”.
However I was back to the drawing board because my wood shop experience, I also understood, that the machines were not for precise cuts, and I would need a chisel of some sorts.
Thursday, 07/16
- Speaking to Nataly (Shop Floor Staff)
- Speaking to Ian (ideating)
- Measuring out various scrap wood
- Speaking to Ian (again) → about scrap wood struggles
Thursday (07/16) was all about ideation. I ran my idea with Nataly (a Shop Floor Staff), and also Ian (head of the Shop Floor), on how feasible is my idea: attempt to create an inlay in wood.
Learning that floor didn’t had chisels, and also trying to learn the CNC machine and its programs (Fusion) in 1 day was not realistic. Not to mention, the CNC machine in the basement might not be open on the weekends was also a factor. Luckily, Ian showed me an example of an inlay he had created and my idea was definitely achievable through Laser Cutting, and to try Acrylic for the inlays. He had asked me to see my design, and I actually had not even sketched it out yet…
I leaned into, that since the floor has scrap materials available, I should try using those materials to create my project right? (I was wrong)
I spent time sketching, and selecting various piece of scrap wood.
Friday (07/17) I had cut out the pieces I need to create in paper to measure it against the wood scraps I found. And then realize, the wood scraps I had were not even big enough for all the pieces I need to cut out. Definitely worried at this point, but I tried looking through the wood material scraps again, and found another piece of wood that felt similar thickness. The rest of Friday (07/17) was filled with attending hour long workshop demos of machines on the shop floor (laser cutting, 3-D printing, design lab) so I didn’t have time to work on the project but to think.
The evening I spent watching various Adobe Illustrator videos though!
Saturday (07/18) was pretty nerve wracking because it would attempting to put the my idea to creation, as well as assembly. Not to mention I only had 1-shot at this because, the Laser Cutting Machine was not open on Sundays. Also personal conflict because my friends really wanted to hang out at 4 PM that Saturday to watch the World Cup 3rd-Place Match, so there was pressure on Saturday was well.
Laser Cutting Experience - 8.5/10 💥
My Laser Cutting Experience was slightly higher than Wood Shop Experience because I was able to create my item with the machine! It was not a 10/10 experience, only because I (personally) am not sure how I feel about the lingering smell of wood burning in my piece. This is actually surprising because, reflecting, I did not realize that smell would be something that mattered me deeply.
Here is a list of everything I needed to undertake using the Laser Cutter and that was new to me:
- Speaking to Arjun (Shop Floor Staff)
- Reformatting my Adobe Illustrator Files
- Using calipers to measure wood scrap
- Adjusting Laser Machine Settings because wood scrap materials are funky (not precise thickness, and didn’t match the given settings)
- Could not go to Canal St Plastics (not open on weekends) → had to use scrap acrylic
- Reformatting my Adobe Illustrator Files x1 for Acrylic material (using scrap acrylic means *my design* has to avoid existing holes in the acrylic board)
- Laser Cutting Acrylic design again (because did not measure acrylic thickness against wood material thickness for design)
I noted calipers, because I had hear of calipers before (in TV shows, or movies) sometimes associated (in my head) in architecture. But not something I had even thought I had to use for this project, and turns out it is just a tool that measures the width of an object precisely.
At this point of my writing, it is now Saturday, July 25th. The smell from the wood has greatly reduced. I’m still not sure if the power settings for the wood was adjusted incorrectly but I was following the guidance from the shop floor. Since there was power range were shown for 3mm and 6mm wood, but my wood material had a thickness of 4.99mm ~ 5mm wood (so it was guesstimate of averages to use for power settings on the epilog laser machine).
Cutting the acrylic material at least did not smell, but had its own frustrations. Using junk acrylic, I needed to make sure my cut-outs/files would work around the pre-existing missing material. Also the boards were not cut straight across, so lining it up in the machine was something I needed to be aware.
After cutting all the material, I realized the acrylic was not as thick as my wood material (the acrylic inlay was more sunken). With the calipers, I realized the acrylic was 3mm vs. wood material was 5mm. Which made me revisit, and having to use more acrylic material that I did not know I needed.
Finally, with all the pieces cut, it all fits!! (yay) It was like a puzzle, and with that I did not really account how I would assembly all of this. I just decided to tape everything. Because:
1) I wanted to take apart this piece and possibly rework in the future (glue felt too permanent)
2) I was also tired, and the existing wood glue on the shop floor seemed dubious.
Now to make the shingles and roof! I never had plans (in my sketches, and in my head) on how I would create the roof/shingles. I think a part of me knew I might free hand, and draw and make it out of some blue card stock or construction paper. The floor didn’t have construction paper, let alone card stock. It felt wasteful to buy a 100 pack of variety colored construction paper, just for a single sheet of blue construction paper. It worked out that Target had a back-to-school sale and I found a pack of colored index cards instead (AND I was able to reuse some index cards during my workshop presentation for Concepts, Cultures, and Communications on Thursday, 07/25!).
Reflections
1️⃣ Ideate early!! And engage experts early in the process 2️⃣ Possibly being able to visit Canal St Plastics for Acrylic during the week 3️⃣ Realizing the need for new materials earlier (much easier to cut from a new acrylic board than avoiding holes) 4️⃣ Using unfamiliar scrap materials can be difficult (on top of learning a new medium) 5️⃣ Giving myself grace :)))))))))))) (I only worked with < 72 hours)
P.S. On Friday (07/24): i was FINALLY able to go to Canal Plastics!! It was more than i expected, and so FULL of fun colors!!!!!!