Poursuite d’une Pochette

Role: Product Designer

Skills: Design Sketching, Rapid Prototyping, CAD (Fusion 360), Metal Forming (Bending and Slip Rolling), Waterjet, Aircraft Riveting, Bead Blasting, Sanding and Polishing, Hemming and Gluing

Overview: Created handbag out of sheet metal using machinery available in the Stanford Product Realization Lab and upholstered with fur.

Design Intent

Poursuite d’une Pochette

A purse made out of steel.

Because my mom desperately wants me to find a purse, this device would act as commentary on that desire and my relationship with femininity in the fashion world, by designing my ideal bag but making it out of metal so I wouldn’t actually be able to use it. (I prefer backpacks).

Below is a progression of my brainstorming, concept sketches, and operation sequence.

Rapid Prototyping and CAD

Physical Prototyping

Design Challenge: Creation of the Form

I first started by using a slip-rolled piece of sheet metal and tapering the sides of it to the desired angle on the Bandsaw. In hindsight, I should have tapered the sides using the Corner Notcher before slip-rolling this back piece, because it was difficult to carry out this action on the bandsaw with the curvature.

In order to create the pattern to cut with the Waterjet, I needed the radius from the slip-rolled side because that would become the shape of the sides of the purse. Retrieving this radius ended up being more difficult than I imagined. I first tried using calculations, but the curvature did not follow the arc of a circle enough to produce a desirable outcome.

To successfully import the shape into Illustrator, I traced the curve that the tapered side of the back piece made onto a piece of paper. I then photocopied the paper and traced a replica of the curvature in Illustrator.

Using tape to mark the desired taper that would be cut using the Bandsaw

Notes to self about process and failed attempt at calculating a radius from the arc.

Photo taken in attempt to capture the curvature of the slip rolled metal

With these components, I ended up with my initial pattern and used the Waterjet to cut the shape. This process was very frustrating and ended up taking a lot longer than I expected because of some issues my file was having with the software. With a lot of troubleshooting, I fixed the file by taking a screenshot of the drawing, using the Image Trace function on Adobe Illustrator, scaling the image to the size of the original piece, and exporting this as a DXF.

After this, I used a hole puncher to punch rivet holes on the piece to initialize the connection that would be made using the rivet gun for the bottom of the purse. In hindsight, I should have added the holes onto the file itself because they did not come out perfectly aligned. Finally, to complete the critical part, I taped the body of the purse together to ensure that everything was measured, rolled, and cut correctly.