An Emotional Island

Geographers and cartographers can be unfeeling people. They say things like "Where is this island?" or "How big is this island?" but they never stop to ask, "Hey, Island. How are you feeling today?"

Islands are complex beings, with a full internal life, so let's help them to find a way to express their inner selves.

I had the idea for this project when I was browsing the local shop which sells cheap imported tat. I saw a long, wide picture frame which actually looked quite nice, and as it had four separate spaces for photographs, I thought about a meme which I had recently seen, involving Madagascar, Sadagascar, Badagascar and "Outagascar".

Since I live in a country where "gas" is called petrol, that didn't work, and it was also rather negative. I felt that we should encourage the island to experience and express positive emotions too, and so I resolved to make a four-paneled piece (a tetrytch? Just looked it up: it's a "tetraptych") featuring a variety of emotions.

Supplies

Cheap picture frame.

Laser cutter, or a jigsaw and a lot more patience than I have.

Thin plywood

Paint

Liking of bad^W good puns.

Step 1: Frame

I've not seen this frame in any shop for ages, but a similar one, or indeed a group of four identical small frames would work just as well. You'll need to adapt the ODF/CSV files to fit.

I unwrapped the frame, removed the protective plastic, pulled the nails holding in the back and then discarded the nails and the backing.

I took detailed measurements of the cardboard front matte and then got rid of that as well.

Step 2: Design

The depth of the frame from the back of the glass to the rear surface of the surround was about 6mm (1/4"), which is twice the thickness of the 3mm ply commonly used at the local makerspace. This meant that I could fit a front mask and a spacing layer within the frame, and then hold that in place with a larger piece of ply which extended over the rear of the frame.

I traced a map of Madacasgar into LibreOffice Draw and then drew some faces onto the maps to give the angry/sad/upset/happy faces.

The drawings (ODG) and laser-cut files (SVG) are attached at each appropriate step. The cutter at the local makerspace has a 400mmx600mm bed, which was just wide enough for the largest sheet which overlapped the back of the frame. As is usually the case with any project, the pieces were marginally too big to allow more than one on each sheet of ply. Grrr.

Step 3: Front Mask

This was the simplest of the files. I cut the outside at 0.5mm narrower than the frame's internal measurement and arranged four suitably sized holes.

N.B. The frame was cheap. The frame was marginally out-of-square. Being paranoid, I measured the internal space top-to-bottom at each end and in the middle, ditto for the side-to-side and also measured the diagonals. the 0.5mm clearance was from the narrowest point of the frame. Always distrust a delivered angle!

I also etched the titles for each island below the relevant window. In retrospect, I would choose a better way of providing the names, such as a painted 3-D printed tablet or a copy-shop laser-print onto card.

Step 4: Centre Layer

To provide a shadow around each piece, I made the windows slightly larger in this layer. I placed the islands in their correct positions and got the cuts made.

You will notice that there are a couple of extra cuts into the "sea" waste on the left hand island. These will feature later, so remember to glean them from the laser cutter.

Step 5: Back Layer

The back layer was cut. It's really just a big sheet to cover the back of the frame and hold everything in place, but it also has:-

a number of clearance holes drilled to allow it to be securely screwed to the frame

cut-outs to allow a hanging cord to be very securely attached while under high tension

a laser-etched line to help with positioning the middle layer.

Step 6: Gluing the Spacing Layer

In order to make the islands "pop" from the sea (and also to ease painting) I used some slips of very thin wood (about 1mm) to space the islands from the back, while keeping them below the surface of the glass.

I placed the middle layer where it should be indicated by the scribed line, then inserted the waste "sea" area from the cut into each hole and drew a quick pencil line to help me locate each island. In retrospect, I should just have laser-etched the island outline onto the rear sheet.

Then I cut some scraps of the very thin wood to fit inside the island's bounds, glued them in place with a white glue and clamped them using some convenient tins of beans. I would usually use much higher pressure, but this isn't really a high-tensile job.

Step 7: Painting the Sea and the Islands

I masked off everything except the windows, including covering the upper suface of the spacing strips.

Then I used a spray primer and then mixed a pale blue. Which was kind of terrifying because I had never mixed paint before.

And I wimped out and used straight-from-the-tube colours for the islands.

Madagascar got red for angry.

Sadagascar got blue for sad.

Badagascar got green for nausea.

Gladagascar got yellow for happy.

I used the scap "sea" which had been salvaged from the middle-layer cut to hold each island in turn, and to help me with not painting the edges of the island. Next time, I shall mirror the pieces to be cut so that I can paint them upside down and have a narrower laser kerf to deal with.

Step 8: Gluing the Islands to the Sea

Once all the paint was dry, I removed all the masking and test-fitted the islands to their plinths.

At this point, I realised that the pale wood of the plinth was showing through the facial features, and so used a Sharpie (tm) to colour those areas which would be visible.

Then the baked bean tins reappeared to help with clamping.

Again, the scrap pieces of "sea" from earlier helped to align the islands perfectly.

Step 9: Assembling It All

Once everything was dry, I laid the frame face down and inserted the front mask, the middle layer and the backboard.

I took the backboard and glued the pieces which hold the hanging cord into place. I had to use some scrap to make an additional spacer, which is shown in the first photograph above but is not in the SVG files. It's a piece of scrap with a hole in it: make your own.

Once that glue was dry, using the laser-cut clearance holes for alignment, I used an awl to make starter holes in the frame and screwed the back on, letting it hold all the other pieces in place.

Then I put the cord on and pulled it nice and tight, so that the frame hangs with nothing visible from the front.

Please note that the screw clearance holes in the very corners of the frame were not used. I'd put them there without thinking, but of course the angled joints of the frame were exactly in those positions and so any screw would just have forced the corners of the frame apart. Put two holes, slightly offset from the corners instead.

Then hang it up and enjoy the variety of emotional expression.