Works

 This assignment is out of order because I haven't finished object building from technical diagrams yet oops. (help) After much wailing and gnashing of teeth and carefully perusing the printing guides, I have printed my pattern on cherry wood. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with it! It's not perfect; the exterior decorations aren't quite centred (I have no idea how I didn't notice it), the engraving shades aren't as varied as I'd like, and I wish I'd done more with full cuts (I was a little afraid to mess up the final design), but I'm happy with it. My favourite part of the design, the flowers on the inner circle, came out excellently. It looks pretty professional, and it's a good example of my work. I'm considering going over it again one day and getting it re-cut, because I think it'd be a great example for my portfolio. I think my greatest challenge with this project was figuring out how to make a design that looks universally "good...

  I really like how this turned out as a blanket and orb, although I couldn't get it to perfectly line up, which niggles at me to no end. However, it did encourage me to apply a new background to my pattern, which I felt looked much better than just a plain black background. I'm sorry, I wanted my pattern to look more "universally applicable..."

 I enjoyed doing this project. Most of my issues with it stemmed from the most efficient way to make a visually-pleasing pattern. I began with this moodboard to determine an idea of what I wanted; mostly I wanted my pattern to be inspired by Indian and Arabic designs. Creating the lines, I originally wanted to have a pattern similar to the ring of navy blue petals near the center of the mandala, but the pattern was too complex to replicate on a much larger scale without being very difficult to trim and copy. I couldn't figure out an appropriate technique to duplicate it. While I couldn't find a suitable background colour to add to the pattern, I decided I liked it as an image which could be replicated on any colour.

 To find some potential inspiration for my design, I looked for aesthetic surface designs in my surroundings. A sweater A towel A vase A cupboard The foot of an armchair A stair board A purse A pillow A glass door

  I wanted to do something that was a little unconventional and took inspiration from architecture outside of Europe. My first thought was the Taj Mahal for "famous palaces", but I thought; why not extend the definition a little and make a building inspired by a mosque? I took inspiration specifically from mosques in Iran for this project, as shown here:     I started out with a basic layout and floor plan, as well as some sketches. I moved into the modelling stage with an idea of an inner courtyard, with some small minarets and domes. The second image shows how I started; with some 2D shapes on a flat plane to map 3D shapes on later.     When I finished, I decided to keep the colours and stylings relatively minimalistic, though I might have put more decorations on the corners of the roofs and windows. I wouldn't know how to do that without vastly overcomplicating the project, but it's something worth looking into.