✹ Disco ball mockup
15th June 2021
Finally, after months of putting this project on pause, I resume finalising the mockup this week. Originally, this project was designed for the Pewter live competition. With my ambition, I planned to make all part on Pewter, either folding it or casting it. With the amount of this back then, sadly, I can not finish it on time so I shift the plan and focus more on the fan.
The idea is to connect each part with the ball bearing, the disc kind, which I was advised that it may not suitable for the mechanism I aim for. But I will try it anyway. The mack up was made from mirror cardboard, reused cardboard connect together with acrylic tube. The mechanism came out the way I wanted but after all, I found it too simple, it reminded me of a diamond shape on the Sims and that’s quite simple. The thing about making a mockup is that it can give you a clearer idea of what you want to do, sometimes a sketch isn’t enough. So from this mockup, I think I may need to adjust the sketch more.
One artist research for this project that I use for the reference is Mariano Fortuny, he was an art nouveau designer from the 40s. One of his lamp collection interest me with their shape and form that create this sophisticated form and it can also respond to the idea of reflective surface that can reflect light to the floor. The idea of this further development of mine work would be to revise the sketch, put more element that can enhance the overall look, maybe the line that created by folding can work as well.
So far, I had acrylic sheet cutouts and I wanted to stick it with some solid form, now I think of casting each part in aluminium but it needs to be hollow. The thing is how can I create this sharp line like the form was folded? That’s something I need to develop more.
