New England State, Wall Hangings
Decorative wall hangings I made in the shape of the states each of Alexa's sisters lives in. Shown is the one I made for Meg, New Hampshire. I also made one of Massachusetts for Jill and one of Vermont for Kate. The heart on each of them is placed in the location of their town/city in the state. The aluminum cut out is on standoffs so it sits proud of the wood backing. Along with the wall hanging, I also gave them a small strip of battery powered LEDs to stick between the aluminum cut out and the wood, to back light the shape at night.
Required Resources: 2 hours a piece, $10 a piece
Size: 12" x 6" x 1.5"
Materials: Aluminum, Standoffs, Walnut, Cherry, Monterrey Cypress
Finish: Aluminum: Polishing wheel. Backing: Semi Gloss Polyurethane.
Tools: Water Jet, Miter Saw, Polishing Wheel
New Techniques: The offset aluminum plates idea is actually something I borrowed from my work. In building up enclosures for control boards and sensors, it is common practice to mount PCBs on standoffs so the soldered bulbs on the bottom of the boards, or other contacts, don't touch a conductive metal backing. I think the standoffs on the part add a nice 3D element to the piece.
Lessons Learned:
Always Document Your Work: For the first couple years that I got into making gifts and such, I was pretty horrible at documentation. And by that I don't just mean I was lazy and didn't document the"making process". Often I forgot to even take a single picture of the final product. The majority of the things I made early on were gifts, so there is no good way of getting pictures of them without bothering the recipients. For this project, I happened to be at Meg's apartment this summer and snapped a couple pictures. While the primary enjoyment of these projects is the building process itself, having a few good pictures of the final product is definitely something I insist on now. Aside from being necessary for putting together a portfolio website such as this, it's nice to be able to show others the projects you've worked on. Even more than that it is a nice shot of nostalgia for me. Always document, document, document!
