So, as it turns out, we are spending three days in the fab lab – not just two! I did not realize that laser cutting and arduinos were split between two groups so now we will have even more time to utilize these awesome resources! This past week, I was in the laser cutting group and got to design a personal notebook cover. I decided to incorporate one of my biggest passions into my design, music, and made the notebook cover resemble an old iPod with one of my favorite songs playing in the “screen.” I figured the title of the song was fitting, seeing as it is called “Soundtrack to My Life,” and I am going to use this notebook for a personal journal. This project really interested me in that even though all of us were laser cutting the cover of a small 3 x 5 notebook, all of them came out very differently and really emphasized the idea that making can be as personal as you want it to be.

We began the class by printing other peoples’ blueprints off of the internet and now we are in the middle by creating similar physical products, but with such different detail. We will end the class by creating products that are completely different from each other, in design and in function. I have realized that this is my favorite aspect of the course, the clear progress we can track throughout the semester by learning to use different resources and incorporate them into our own projects at the end of the semester.

Also, exciting news! Josh, Annie, and I have decided to create a digital tuner for ukuleles as our final project! As more and more elementary schools switch to teaching the ukulele as opposed to the recorder, we decided to make a fun design called the Tuna-lele that is a small simple tuner in the shape of a fish that teachers could pass out to students that are behaving well in class or making great progress! Now that we have learned how to laser cut we will most likely be using that to cut into the plastic that will be surrounding the tuner so that it will look like a fish. As of now, we are not sure but I’m very excited to see where this takes us in the future!