Post 10 - Final Creation

Post 10 - Papercraft Final Creation

With the preparations all in order, I was finally ready to begin the creation of my final piece. Although through my excitement I forgot to document this process as well as I wanted to, including taking pictures of every step, I did manage to get a bunch of them regardless. 

For the rest of the process, I will try to document it through writing and description to the best of my ability. 

I began by printing out my blueprints for cut-out. Due to a short amount of time and many responsibilities, I was not able to access the laser cutter as I originally intended. However, with the help of my exacto knife, I was able to do the job pretty well, from the blueprints themselves to the decorations on the blade edges. 

My first shape and the beginning of the folding process was the one I felt most comfortable with; The base of the blade. Thanks to the two sides, top and bottom, I was able to create the crease in the center quite easily, adding the intended dimension and depth to my work. The long-term development of the blueprint resulted in a straightforward folding pattern and a pleasant experience in the process. Every one of the three parts came together very smoothly and comfortably, producing a very nice result. I ended up being very proud of myself and my hard work coming to fruition.

The next step was to create the second bottom part of the blade, which connects directly to the base. Just like the above, I had no trouble with the folding thanks to the guidance of my blueprint. The two pieces came together nicely and the crease turned out good, with the depth being just as I wanted. The thickness turned out just right for the third, back piece to fit right in the opening. When putting one and two together, the base and 2nd part fit like a puzzle which was super exciting to see, mainly due to the satisfaction that my methods were working and my problem-solving was effective. It was a joyful time and I was very happy with how it was looking.

The third part of my blade caused me a little bit of trouble. While in the process of folding, I realized that I miscalculated the back piece. Everything looked great except for the connecting area, where my miscalculation resulted in two small side holes. 

I ended up having to go back to Rhino to figure out my measurements more effectively, after which I re-printed my pieces and attempted the fold again. This time, the pieces once again came together very nicely.

Finally, it was time for the creation of the long part of my sword, which one could call the 'actual blade'. During this part, I ran into several small challenges. Firstly, I could not print it in one piece. Because I only had access to a standard printer and paper size, I was forced to split this part into two, after which I combined them together. The additional length added a little higher level of complexity to the folding process, where I had to be extra careful to ensure that my fold lines were straight and followed the path directed by the blueprint on the interior side of the paper. 

Although the initial idea of having to connect two pieces of paper caused me a little bit of anxiety, I was able to pull through and realize that aside from the folding caution the connection did not cause me any major problems and was quite easy to overcome. In comparison with the rest of the pieces, the long part once again surprised me with how well it connected to the part before it. 

The blade turned out to be a big success.

When I figured out that I could not fold the tip of the blade with the rest of the long part, I decided that the best course of action would be to separate it. Although I was avoiding reverting to this outcome, the thickness of the paper made creating a proper fold on that small of a scale very difficult to do. 

To my surprise, the tip did not look all that bad, quite the opposite. I found that it fit the rest even better, was easier to connect, and overall gave it a sharper-looking result.

 

In the next part of the process, I began cutting out the decoration details of the sword with my exacto knife. To do this, I printed them all separately on their own paper pieces, dedicated to their area. This took me around three hours to do. 

In the end, I found all of it very very worth it once I took a look at my sword with them on. It was almost as if my object actually came to life!

This has also made me realize, that despite the shape of this sword being quite memorable to the fans of the game, the Red Iron Blade would not be the same without its significant engravings.

Soon enough, I started to catch myself admiring how perfectly I managed to make these pieces connect. All the same thickness on the edge, all the same thickness in the center. It was quite a crazy experience, sitting there and thinking "Wow, I really did that."

Another mesmerizing thing about this project was that the center crease line was perfectly aligned in all 4 of the blade pieces, giving it that unified look I was after all along. This was also one of the craziest realizations and things that have made me the happiest about my work.

The last step was to create the hilt of the sword. For this step, I considered using a tube from toilet paper, but it was too thick and too short. (Aside from me not even sure if that was allowed) Instead, I created a simple cylinder in Rhino and cut out the connecting area with boolean difference, which I then unfolded and printed. This has worked quite well. Later, I wanted to stick with my original idea of creating a wrap for it, but instead of brown, I ended up going with white.

The result of this project, in all honesty, turned out far better than I imagined. There were times when I heavily started doubting myself in this process, wondering if I can even create something like this. It was quite a crazy experience, the most satisfying of which I believe has been the actual process of problem-solving and working through issues I faced.

This project has been a great learning opportunity and should the time allow, I can definitely see myself creating something like this again in the future.