Introduction: Rapid Prototyping With Paper: T-Shelves

About: An engineer, seamstress, cook, coder, and overall maker. Spent a summer at Instructables; got a degree in E: Neural Engineering at Olin College; made a microcontroller (tessel.io); now thinking about climate c…

Inspired by the J1Studio T-shelves, I wanted to try making them with lasercutting. To figure out some of the shapes I could build, I started by prototyping in paper.
I used the Silhouette Cameo to cut my paper parts, but a good blade wielded by hand could easily do the same.

From the little triangles and squares, I used tacky glue to build likely shapes- they can be stuck right at the edges, even, for a pleasing geometric look.

I then formed my shapes into an imitation of the Mountain shelf, which can be seen in the gallery of the J1 Studio.

Prototyping in paper really helped me get a feel for how the structural components fit together, and how many of each component I needed. And now I have a miniature shelf!

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