I have always had an obsession with gothic art. I kind of love the piercing angles that surround nice curves. In this project, as soon as I heard that we had to make a diamond shape with metal, my mind went to creative ways to express a gothic look on the piece. From this, I grabbed my Ipad and then I designed the piece in Procreate. I imagined my design with glass on the other side, such that light would shine through (maybe i’ll do this in the future, who knows). I wanted the typical gothic church look for the piece, two side openings and one large, grand opening. I designed the piece symmetrical as well. Once the design was done, I sent it to my google drive, so I could edit it from my computer. In my computer, I uploaded the file to my adobe illustrator and then I made it into a raster. From here, I emailed the design to myself and then I went to the plasma cutter
Below is the ipad art that I drew. I changed it a little to preserve the features, as the plasma cutter takes off a lot of material.
I followed the instruction on the plasma cutter to setup the machine. I used the metal that was there for our class. I also verified my setup with the active lab assistant (Liam) that was in at the time to make sure that the metal was set up correctly. Then I moved the head of the plasma cutter to a clean section, but not wasteful of space. Then I did a dry run, with the plasma off (my cut was good). Then I turned the plasma on with the button and cut. My design came out great! I was very lucky that the tool path hadn’t chipped any of my little thin strips on the design! After I cut the first piece, I setup the second piece very close to it. I, once again, did a dry run with the machine, then I proceeded to cut the metal. The second piece turned out great as well and I got really lucky on my cuts. After I cut the pieces, I made sure the space was clean, put the pieces in my box and I was done for the day.
The next day, I angle grinded. In doing this, I used the clamp on the piece (I made sure it was really tight) and I went to work on the diamond. Because I the clamp, I basically did ⅛ of the piece and then I would reclamp. Angle grinding the piece makes it hot, so I classmate (Georgia) gave me the great advice to wet a paper towel and use that to move it. This worked great! After this, I finished up for the day and put my piece away.
The piece while being ground (left), piece after angle grinded (middle), both pieces done (on the right)
The clamp station clean.
On the final day of work, I sand blasted and painted my piece. I turned the vacuum on to the sand blaster and then I put both pieces in the sand blaster. I turned the sand blaster light on and went to work. The piece gets kind of mat as you sand blast so I just hit the piece until it was fully mat. At this stage, I missed the shine of the post-angle grinded piece, so I wanted to add a little shine with the spray paint. I did this by spray painting with the gold paint. I did a test spray on another random piece, then I painted my own. I wanted to spray paint very very lightly. I spray painted 1 side of both pieces and then I let them dry for 15 minutes (a little longer than the 10 minute recommendation). After this, I flipped the pieces over and I spray painted the other side of the pieces. I also let this side dry for 15 minutes. After this, I checked if they were wet, by touching them, and they weren’t. Then I added a final clear coat. This was done the exact way as the gold coat. I sprayed each side, while letting them sit for 15 minutes prior to touching them. I took my photos and I was done.
Pieces in sand blaster (left)Pieces after sand blast (right)
Piece while it was sprayed just gold
The sprays that I used
The cleaned up materials. The tape and exacto blad were used to make the label for the final turned in product.
My Final Piece after clear coat
My pieces with their steps waiting to be graded.
Let’s talk cost, because I would not pay $171.44 for both of these pieces, I mean that is ridiculous. Yes. $171.44 is the cost of both of these pieces. $85.52 is the cost of one… and that is not better. I’m not trying to make a boujee fashion brand, just some cool products. Before I discuss what drives the cost up, what would I actually buy these for? They serve null function, they are made of metal, kinda heavy… I guess they’re a paperweight functionally, but in the end… they’re subjectively cool and would be sold to a niche audiene. I can work with that. They’re being sold to a niche group, so I would likely stay with small batch numbers, maybe 20 maximum, and more like 10 of the same. This will drive of demand by forking supply. So… what would I pay. Well, from an artisanal perspective, they’re okay. They would be limited, that’s good. I think I’d pay somewhere between $20 and $50 for them (definitely still a hype piece). For the pieces to reach that upper threshold, I would definitely have to get a brand going alongside them to support the resale market and the general want to have these. This means etching a logo somewhere, having a story behind the piece, making some design changes to approach a wider audience (gothic art is cool but it’s not winning any popularity contest). This said, $50 isn’t too far off from $85. Why are they $85. Well, if we look at the materials, the cost can go a lot further than what I listed. The cost for the sheet of metal is for a 12″ by 12″. I also think that I bought one of the more expensive ones. Within this 12″ by 12″, you could likely fit 3-4 of the diamond designs, this would drive the price down, slightly. Also, those cans of spray paint will last forever. Not actually forever, but yes, they will last a very long time. So, the spray paint is basically a one time cost, considering it will last for 20 of these designer metal pieces. Now, where are the other costs. One of the largest costs is the makerspace. From my research, I found a makerspace (in Dallas) that charges $60 for a month of use. It has lots of tools and I could make, likely, two batches, around 20-40 of these diamonds, per month. This is, for simplicity, also a one time cost per batch. Lastly, we also have the grinder (I’m sure the other makerspace has clamps). The grinder looks like it will wear down with use. I think that it would actually give out before the spray can (this is just my intuition from working with grinders before). Some grinders last forever but it’s always nice to have a nice puck to grind with. For this, we will say that we will replace one every month. In this scenario, every month, we make 20 minimum of these diamonds. This requires one angle grinder, 2 cans of spray paint, all the same costs, and around 7 sheets of metal. In this scenario, I will work 5 times the amount I worked in the previous scenario, on machine operation (which includes post processing). The rest of the fees will stay the same, as they are one time costs. What this means is that to produce 10 times the amount, I will only work 5 times more. This strategy relies on me getting good at the work. For this plan, we pay $564.64 for the month. Then we have 20 of these $50 metal diamonds. These are worth $1000 in total. The margin is not great. We worked 20 hours in that month to make roughly $440. However, this is unrealistic. What we should do is, until we get a following, focus on marketing and do smaller batches. Don’t burn ourselves out. Accept that the margin will be less. In reality, the margin I described above should be a milestone or a goal that is hit after sacrificing profit for brand outreach. That is my plan
-Will
