Build in public, vol. 2

If you're reading this, I'm officially 26, the leafs are out of the playoffs, and I was able to draft a blog post in time. What a week! And it's Wednesday! I find May is always the month that starts the craziest period of the year (summer), and it has really hit the ground running this year. I'm not sure if it's because its specifically my birthday season, or if its the weather getting nice, or if I just still associate May to August as "summer" because I am perpetually a university student in my own head - probably a combo of all 3 if we're being frank (who's Frank anyway?).

What I'm working on

Since the main idea of the shoe charm since its inception was to be an accessory for my birthday outfit, this is the project I've been (pardon my french) balls to the wall on for the last 2 weeks.

Orchid shoe charm

SO, the actual CAD design for this has been done for a while now, and the only changes have been slight tweaks to improve the structural integrity. But the tweaks have been incessant. A fillet here, a thickness increase there, losing my mind everywhere. The main challenge with this has been in how best to print it. As you can see from this first picture, when you print it flat or almost flat, you get this topographical pattern on the petals. Is it really cool? Yes. Is it what I was going for? No. So I've printed many an iteration playing around with different orientations for printing, trying to find the harmony between aesthetics and functionality - aka not breaking when I breathe too hard in it's general direction.

This little piece has broken almost immediately every time I've printed it. It is the bane of my existence and also the prettiest part of the flower so I am determined to get her looking sharp and in one piece Amen. The party is on Saturday which means I only have a handful of days to print, paint, and pull it off. I will obviously get it done because deadlines scare me but I will definitely freak out along the way :)

Fridge magnet

I ended up 3D printing the version I showed in last weeks blog, but I forgot to take a picture womp womp🥸. Tbh it did the job but not very well so I'm okay with no one seeing this iteration until I figure out something better - stay tuned.

What I'm learning

Design can be hard, but 3D printing and all its nuance is actually way harder for me at the moment lol. In my mind, the biggest mountain of a project is the design aspect. And while I do think that is the case majority of the time, sometimes the prototyping method takes a few (or 25) tries to get juuuuust right. This is all good knowledge gained so I'm enjoying the process, but in true me fashion I wish I started printing the orchid a lot earlier so this problem would not be going until the 11th hour. Say it with me now - it's not hard, it's just new!

Where I'm stuck

Remember 2 weeks ago when I said I haven't had the time to work on these projects so I'm going to start scheduling things? Airbaallllllll! Life gets busy and fun and I love doing these things so I still work on them but the added pressure kind of takes away from the enjoyment of it all. So I'll let myself work in downtime and take things as they come. I'll live life like those people with wave tattoos 🌊🌊

Thank you for joining me for another chaotic blog post. I don't read these over and I don't edit for grammar so unless I did something heinous, keep it to yourself! Thanks!

See you next time!