and relax....

Well, that's it. All finished. Phew what a week! My dad has his operation yesterday and is making good progress. Bit of a weight lifted there. I handed my USB yesterday and think (hope!) that John liked it. I've spent today uploading the last few bit to this blog. I've really enjoyed writing it and feel that it's a great way to record my design thinking and processes. I like the structure and neatness that comes with it but it also allows me to fly off on a bit of a tangent without forgetting where I was or what I was doing. All in all this project has been good fun, even with it's ups and downs. Although I am looking forward to a nice relaxing Christmas now :-)

Oooops.....

Well I've got my casing and lid made. Ended up not CNCing my casing, it's all been done on the 3D printer. I'm pleased with how it's turned out though. I spent most of today sanding it down and got a fantastic finish. It was like glass. Unfortunately this didn't go down well when it came to spraying... the plastic primer and pressure pot primer went on really well, until I got it home and tried to rub it down. The plastic primer just peeled off. Should have given the surface a key first! Can't believe I didn't do that. It's something that has been drilled into me by my dad (from doing lots of glossing!) Anyway, it's a bit of a blessing in disguise really. I've got the whole thing assembled, with the lid fitting, and sanded down a bit more to get an (almost) perfect seam. Just got a little bit more sanding to do then it'll be ready for the spray booth tomorrow. Fingers crossed everything goes ok.

Making progress!

Feeling quite a bit better than I did on Wednesday. I managed to stay late at uni on Thursday and get the modelling material ready for the CNC router on Monday. My lid was manufactured on Thursday and I'm very pleased with it. I spent most of yesterday working on my packaging and preparing my lid for spraying. Making the card shoe was so frustrating at times! I thought it would be easier with card than paper but I was wrong there. It was so fiddly! I really like it though, so think it was worth it. I've also been trying to catch up with my blog and get things posted, but my internet has been on a go-slow today and its taking longer than planned. I've still got a bit to write up but I think I'm managing to stay on top of it so hopefully I'll not have as much to do after my USB has been handed in. I'm planning to get the casing manufactured and sprayed up tomorrow and hopefully spray the lid too. But for now I'm going to plod on with my blog...

Rubbish day :-(

Today just isn’t my day. All I needed to do was get my lid designed and get it ready to print. I had quite a bit of help off John the technician and that just got me more confused. I know what I want to do but I don’t always know the right way to go about it. It didn’t help that I managed to confuse John about my lid design intentions, so he ended up doing something that was more complicated than it needed to be. I'm pleased with my design after tweaking it tonight but I'm feeling really down about the whole project now. I lost most of yesterday due to Matthew's nativity (he's only six and couldn't miss seeing him as a king!), then there was an after school thing that we'd signed up weeks ago to and they were so excited about. Managed to get a bit done in the evening but it was the same old story, I was trying to do something and an error kept popping up saying that there wasn't enough references to do what I wanted to do. Turns out it was something straight forward when I asked John today but it really frustrates me when I don't know what the problem is. Today was also a bit of a lost day as I could only spend half of it at uni as I had to pick the boys up from school. Wednesday is the only day they're not in after-school club and I think that after Christmas I'm going to try to get something arranged.

My tutorial went really well and I'm happy with the work I'm doing, I'm just worried that I'm running out of time. John suggested that I email Carrie down in the workshops with my file ready to go on the 3D printer, once I'd got the design finalised. I spoke to her and it wasn't a problem, which was a load off my mind, as I imagined having to wait til tomorrow to get it in the queue. However, when I try to convert it to a .stl file another error pops up saying “Unable to triangulate part CAP.  Aborting output." No idea what that means! Looks like I'll be seeing John again tomorrow. On the plus side, the main body of the casing is all ready to go. All being well I'll get it on the CNC machine on Monday - finished and sprayed for Tuesday. I'm definitely going to use vinyl for the sole & insole detail but even getting that ready for print is proving tricky. John talked me through the steps and I felt very comfortable with the process but the peep toe detail is different from the other parts and, again, I’m not really sure how to go about it. But it isn't a very long process so that's not my main concern at the moment.

I think the icing on the cake today was coming in from uni and finding out that my dad has got his operation date though. A week tomorrow. I’m not sure how I feel about it. Deep down I know that it will make him so much better, almost back to his old self. But on the other hand he’s my dad and I worry about him. His health is shocking and he might not pull through. He has to go in the day before for all the pre-op stuff, which is the day this project is due. He lives with me and I'm the only one that takes him to all his appointments etc. and I really don't like the thought of him being in hospital on his own. But, he’ll be in the best place and I’m sure he’ll be fine.

So, back to my project - tomorrow looks like being a late one. I've got Systems & Control practical work all day but I'm sure that it is a late opening for the workshops so I should be able to make some progress there. Friday is out as it looks like being tied up all day with my dad. On a more positive note, I am really pleased with how my blog is coming along. I'm using Jing to record everything I'm doing on the computer and keeping written notes so I don't forget what is what. My packaging is coming along nicely and I'll be finishing it off over the weekend. So it's not all doom and gloom really. Crikey, I can't believe how much I've rambled on! I must admit it feels so much better to get it out of my system. I'm confident that I will finish this project on time - the optimist inside me is screaming right now! Sorry for rabbiting on. I think I should get my own personal blog to let off steam every now and then! :-)

Think I'm getting there now...

I think I'm finally getting to grips with Creo. I had a one to one session with my tutor, John, on Friday and feel a lot better about it now. Over the weekend I've completed the design for the top half of my casing and have been working on the bottom half. Although I'm having a bit of trouble deciding the best way to go about creating the red sole. I've done a couple of designs but they need tweaking a bit; hopefully John will be able to help me out at Uni on Monday afternoon. I'm not sure if it will be possible to create a 2mm thick piece of material using the CNC, which is what I reckon I need to inlay into the black part of the sole. I don't want to have to do a bodged paint job on it. I might end up having a totally red bottom half of the casing, but I really don't want to have to do that. I could always cut the inlay out of red acrylic but I don't really want a glossy finish on that part of the sole. I've been thinking about using cream leather as the inner lining part of the top half of the shoe, but need to research where I can get it from and whether or not it will laser cut accurately. I'm sure I'll come up with something. But for now I think I'm going to hit the sack.

A long productive day

Due to the strikes, my boys and I have been at home all day. Thankfully they've played reasonably well together and not killed each other, which is a miracle. I've had quite a good working day - spent a lot of time looking at Christian Louboutin shoes, which can never be a bad thing!

I'm actually very proud of myself as I have chosen a product and design without umming and aaring for days trying to come to a decision. I must be getting better at this! I've also improved on my sketching quite a lot. (Although I found drawing an aerial view of a stiletto quite tricky.) My first attempts at the start of this module were abysmal, I'm really glad I didn't have to make them public like I have with these ones.

Think I might actually get my early night tonight - a hot bubble bath is running as I type.

Night all :)

Yawn.....

So much for my early night. I'm still amazed at how fast time goes when you're on a computer - even though I've been doing this sort of work for years! It only seems like 2 minutes since Matthew's bedtime and it's going on 11 now.

I've been tinkering with the layout and design of my blog. Think I'm happy with it now... I've changed it back and forth a bit! Just going to show a couple of people and see what they think.

I've also added a couple more pages tonight and will be doing plenty of sketching and modelling tomorrow. Should be good fun :-)  Kids come in handy for something, I've got plenty of play-doh and crayons knocking about!