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My girlfriend is an artist: she paints. She makes miniature paintings with super realistic
landscapes. They are the size of a matchbox. As (last weekend) we had an exhibition at a large art fair we needed to have a way to display the miniature paintings. So I had an idea.
I wanted to make large builds of the letters of her name, and make compartments where she could put the paintings in. Her name is Els and the picture shows one of the letters lying on the floor in my living room. Each letter is about 70cm high. And made out of cardboard.
When all letters are ready they are going to be painted black.
The first step was to cut out the letters from the cardboard. I have a lot of really large cardboard in stock. I use it a lot as one of my hobbies is bookbinding. So making the baseplate was easy. But then I needed to make the compartments.
For making the compartments I needed to have all the parts completely rectangular. And sometimes I am a bit sloppy. So I decided to build some tools to aid me.
I used Tinkercad to draw some corners. Each corner is 5 cm at each side and 2mm thick.
Next I printed them and glued magnets on each side. Put the magnets first on the corners and then apply hotglue., to hold them in place. I printed 12 sets. There is a magnet on each side so per set 4 magnets and for my 12 sets a total of 48 magnets. Doesn't have to look slick, just functional.
The magnets make them snap neatly together.
When gluing the structure I put them on the outside and inside so the walls are absolutely straight at 90 degrees.
And I also used them to keep the corners at 90 degrees.
When the glue is dry I can easily remove the corners and use them for the next part.
Works fantastic !!!
Keeps the angles at 90 degrees and makes sure I got a sleek design.
If you need the STL files you can get them from Tinkercad.
And here is what the end result looks with the letters lying on the floor in our home, and the first letter filled as a test. Next is a part to hang these on the wall. The weight is not a lot (it's cardboard remember) but I do not want any ropes to cut into the cardboard.
Till next time
Have fun
Luc Volders
