Introduction: Sketch Folder

Inspired by a similar project I found on the web, I made my own sketch folder. The original drawings were fairly small and the curve pattern was rather plain. I made mine capable to carry A3 papers, since i use a lot of them for my study. So i figured a sketch folder would be ideal to store them. 

Original project: http://fablab.waag.org/project/sketch-folder

Step 1: Step 1

After a brief introduction with Illustrator, I wrote down the measurements, needed for my A3 map. Ones these were the right size, I started drawing the basic shape of the holder. This was easily done, with the project i refered to earlier on. 

Step 2: Trying Out Different Patterns

The next step was to come up with my own pattern, that would allow the wood to bend. After searching the web for alternitives, I found out that there weren't any others than the plain standard one. So i had to design my own. This was rather hard to do. Making a cool pattern isn't that hard at all, but figuring out how to make one that would bend wasn't easy. As included in the pictures above I tried many different patterns. After a few weeks of cutting out samples, I came to the conclusion none of the above actually worked. There was one pattern that possibly had some potential so I adapted that one to something which I thought would work out this time. Unfortunately this one scattered into pieces ones i tried to bend it. With only a small timegap left i went to look to the plain pattern and asked myself why that one worked and my patterns didn't. After the analysis I made a pattern similar to the normal vector pattern only with different shapes. I was reliefed this one finally worked out for me and I used it in my final piece. 

Step 3: Laser Cutting

I cut out my parts out of 3mm plywood on a Universal lasercutter. The whole project is made out of one piece of plywood.