I created a tactile project utilizing my skills in fabrication and my interest in typography. While many other students in my class went down the route of a "how-to" book, poster or infographic, I chose to break away from the expectations in this project by creating a Jacob's Ladder, a flipping wooden children's toy. This allowed me to create a book of sorts, by having steps that cascaded down the Jacob's Ladder in chronological order when it was flipped.
On a typical Jacob's Ladder, there is not anything on the sides of the blocks, so the optical illusion of constantly flipping is maintained. However, when such an object is examined, it is observable that there are really two sides to the toy, and one of the sides is arranged into order from top to bottom when the toy is flipped. Therefore, I used this feature of the physical object to feature steps of how to make a sanded, glued-up blank of wood out of scrap plywood - the same scrap plywood I used to make the Jacob's Ladder, and the motto, "Just Make" on the other side.
For this project's final product, I used the laser cutter to engrave and cut an acrylic insert for a display box to hold the sanded blank and the Jacob's Ladder side by side. The acrylic holding them in place says "What will you make next?" on it. The folded up Jacob's Ladder and the plywood blank end up being the same size - to remind the viewer that while the blank has become "something out of nothing," it could still be considered as nothing itself - and then was "made" into the Jacob's ladder.
One of the most important things I have learned over my time at Columbia is encapsulated in this project's message - that something can always be made out of nothing, if the maker puts in the time and effort. This has applied to many of the fields that I have dabbled in at Columbia, including design, woodworking, and printmaking. Often times I get stuck in the ideating phase - where I am not sure what will work best or what I should do. This project was a reminder to myself that making something out of nothing is always a good starting point.
The prototype Jacob's Ladder that I created out of foam board, and hand-lettered on digitally to get a sense for how the steps should lay out.
Gluing together scrap wood to make the blank.
Cutting off the raw edges.
Sanded and smooth!
The finished How to Make ladder is stored in this display box, as seen above!
The ladder sitting folded once finally assembled.
