IIDA New England Fashion Show: The Violin

Violin Process: design + fabrication

Payette’s entry for the 2015 IIDA New England Fashion Show, Loxodonta, consisted of three characters: the elephant, the circus ringmaster and the Jester. Each had their own accoutrements, including a violin, held by the Jester. Like the other elements of the entry, the violin itself was very exciting to create, and had its own challenges and unique process for design and fabrication.

The form of the violin is inspired by modern electric violins. Without the need for traditional acoustical properties, the body of an electric violin can be almost any shape. With that in mind, I produced simple sketches to explore potential body designs. While electric violins can be any shape, it’s important that the audience be able to recognize the instrument from their seats without difficulty. In that regard, the curves on the right side of the violin were retained, as well as the F-hole, while the left side was cut back to simplify the overall form, make it thinner, and give the instrument a more modern aesthetic.

From there, the next steps in the process involved Rhino 3D. I traced an image of a violin to scale and modified the line work to match the chosen sketch and vision for the instrument. After the base line work was completed, I modeled the violin taking into consideration the construction material. In order to match the Jester’s costume colors as well as adhere to the spirit of the fashion show, Lumicor (a thin, colored, translucent acrylic material) was integral to the design of the instrument. However, the material is flimsy on its own, and needs a more substantial structure to keep its shape. I selected acrylic to provide support, due to its rigidity and its transparent quality, which compliments the Lumicor. This material choice informed the final design of the violin, which largely utilizes a layering method to articulate the form of the instrument. Next, I separated the completed violin model into its constituent parts and flattened into 2D line work to be formatted for the laser cutter. I produced an exploded isometric drawing to help work out issues including which layers of the violin would be laminated with Lumicor as well as the order of construction and assembly.

After the pieces were laser cut, the issue of laminating the Lumicor to the acrylic proved to be a minor challenge. Because of the thinness of the Lumicor, it wasn’t realistic to bond it to the acrylic from the sides. However, the goal was to join the two together cleanly, to avoid any indication of gluing, which would be easily recognized between the two translucent materials. Double sided tape seemed like the ideal choice, with a good balance between control of application (unlike liquid bonding agents) and a fairly subtle appearance. I used cyanoacrylate in other areas of the violin where glue joints would be less noticeable, such as the pegs and internal structure, both of which used ¼” acrylic rods.

In addition to the work on the body, I incorporated other elements of a violin: the pegs, fingerboard, bridge, tailpiece and chinrest were all cut from acrylic and sprayed with a frosted glass finish, to offer some contrast to the largely clear and purple violin and make these smaller pieces stand out. The bow was also cut from ¼” acrylic, the frog section frosted and the rest laminated with Lumicor.

The entire process, design through construction and assembly took roughly 15-20 hours. Using Rhino 3D for multiple phases of the project was a major asset due to its versatility in handling raster images, 2D line work and 3D modelling all under one program.

The finished violin and bow looked great when completed, and paired seamlessly with the Jester costume.

Related:
Fabric to Fabulous: Designing Details for the 2015 IIDA Fashion Show
Elephant on Parade – #ABX2015
IIDA New England 2015 Fashion Show: Meet ‘Pearl’