birdhouse prototype
| The purpose of this prototype is to see if a hexagonal conical roof can be attached to hexagonal tube and still fold flatly. It does. Secondly, to see if the house could be positioned on an elevated branch and still open and close correctly. It does. Thirdly, to work out the arrangement of layered branches. |
| I don't imagine the finished card will be much better than this
prototype. The thing is, the fun is in seeing what works and
ironing out the problems that arise, not in the tedious perfection of
execution. By then, I've pretty much lost interest in the
card as a project. I think the finished house will have a
drawn thached roof with incompletely set sea shells suggesting
bird-made shingles. The benefit of thaching is I get to scratch in the
coloring instead of carefully painting. I don't imagine I'll get too detailed with branches either. I became aware of, then fascinated by, then bored by the fractal nature of drawing tree branches early on. By the first grade I saw how branches were like miniture trees. The artist must decide for himself where to stop. I stop early. Adding Ys onto Ys then cutting them out precisely is boooooooring. Now I tend to stop at the first Y, as here. Anything beyond that is an extravagance. But looking at this, I might keep the the main branch near the top but bend it downward , and avoid the X shape formed by two branches crossing by cutting off the lower branch underneath the larger upper branch to appear as if it's connected underneath. I think I'll experiment further by actually attaching a lesser branch to a broader lower one to see if it's possible to elevate it higher than its point of origin on the opposite side of the central fold. I've never swithced elevations like that and it might not work. Seems it would either not fold closed or open properly. Maybe sturdy tabs that slide in slots would work. If it does, then I could make a roller-coaster! |