Organically Shaped Lasercut Shelf

In 2023, I discovered Marc Newson's Voronoi shelf as seen above, this sparked a great inspiration for organic shapes in my design process. Last year, in 2024, I took a Media Arts and Design course where we dove into inspirations and this came up again where I decided to design a shelf inspired by Newson. And here we are again! For this final project, I decided to take inspiration from the organic shapes in Newson's shelf and additionally from nature and specifically rock. I love climbing, it is a recent passion hobby, and so I wanted to create a rock climbing inspired trinket shelf! After some research, I found some more shelves that carry the design I intended and followed some videos to understand how I would go about this.

For this Lasercut shelf, I used:

1. Epilog Fusion Maker 36 Laser Cutter
2. 1/8 inch Cardboard
3. Fusion 360 for Designing
4. Masking tape
5. Mod Podge and Paintbrushes
6. Newspaper

I originally wanted to use plaster to create the organic outer texture, however after demo-ing on scrap cardboard I found that it was too heavy for the cardboard to support it and additionally became very cracked and chipped off. I ended up using paper mache instead to coat the outside for the texture.

The first step of this design process, as is for many, is sketching the design! I started with sketching out what I wanted it to look like and then, after discussions with my Instructors, I found that creating a rectangular shelf for the base and then a front panel on top that had the curves would be the best way to complete this. I measured some of the trinkets that I wanted to fit inside and found that the largest one was 2" tall and 1.5" wide and therefore based my shelf compartments off of that, with some smaller space at the top for shells and then bigger compartments at the bottom. I also found that I wanted to create a press-fit design to put it all together and use finger joints and tabs for the dividers.

Using Fusion 360, I sketched out the base to the measurements of 10" x 12", allowing for 2-3 compartments across, I then drew in slots for the other panels, with four on the sides and three on the top and bottom. I set my ply in the parameters and certain other measurements, therefore the whole project was parameterized to ensure that if I needed to change anything it would be streamlined.

To create the other panels, I relied on the project tool which allowed me to project the slots from the base panel and not have to redraw them every time. For the slots in the dividers, I used the rectangle tool and then aligned them according to the measurements in my sketches. For the slots in the sides/frame of the shelf, I made a new sketch on the preexisting body and then used the cut tool to cut out the slot. This proved to be the hardest part as some of the measurements did not align as I didn't account for ply in the beginning. I found also that using joints to connect each piece allowed for more exact visuals of the shelf. I then created the front panel by sketching on top of the original base and adding curves to each compartment.

After exporting my file, I uploaded it to the Epilog Lasercutter and lined up the laser to ensure it cut the right area of the cardboard I was using. I then printed using a kerf of 0.25mm and the measurements from the file. The press-fit joints ended up working and fitting together however due to the flimsy nature of the cardboard and how layered it was it was hard to get it to stay together and support itself - so I used glue and a paintbrush to fit it together and keep it secure. In the future I would account for the layers and make the tabs/slots deeper so that there was more overlap.

As the plaster did not work in the demo, I used Mod Podge and Newspaper to make the textured coating over the shelf. Before coating, I used cardboard supports that I bent to fit into the curves that were on the front of the shelf - that way there was no gapping in between the front panel and the rest of the shelf and for greater support. I then used masking tape to cover the cardboard of the shelf before applying the glue to protect the cardboard from getting soggy and loosing its structure. The paper mache process was pretty simple, I put layers of glue and then strips of newspaper over the shelf for 2-3 layers depending on the area and let it dry.

On top of the Paper Mache outside, I was going to use Joint Compound to get the organic feeling and white look, however after gluing all the newspaper on and letting it dry I made an aesthetic decision to leave it with the raw newspaper look as I found that I liked the look of it a lot as all the newspaper felt very cohesive and oceanic. I learned a lot from this project and looking back there are definitely some steps I would rethink. One being the way the cardboard fit together, I found that the tabs would loose structure do to how airy cardboard is inside and found it difficult to keep it inside the slits. To solve this, I would account for the layers and make the tabs longer (adding depth to the connection) or choose to use plywood. Although, as I wanted to hang this shelf, I was aiming to use the lightest materials available. I also had more cardboard when printing and so I printed a larger version of the shelf and am hoping to experiment with joint compound and see if that has a look similar to the inspo. I also want to print out 3D climbing holds to add to the outside - to add to the rock climbing feel. This would pair the best with the joint compound and additionally adding some more curves on the outside of the shelf to create a rock look.