Panels - Stained glass windows project
This post is part of a series on the stained glass windows project.
Beehive panels
This was the first panel that I designed as the tech demo to figure out all the technical challenges with this project. I created the design in Fusion 360 then cleaned it up in Inkscape. I made each segment larger than any of the other panels because I didn’t know how much space I needed to not have LED hotspots. Also the black dividers are 10mm instead of 3mm like the other panels.
This design lent itself well to a patterns that worked well with clock faces were the patterns rotated around the center.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/beehive
Mountains panels
I took panoramic photo from Queen Elizabeth Park to learn the names of all the mountains on the skyline.
I don’t like this panel much. The issues with this panel is that the mountains segments are too large making it hard to design interesting LED patterns. There is basically only a few different patterns to make. Northern lights, Fiery sky, and shimmering rolling green hills, etc… I get a lot of feedback from people that this is their favorite panel. I find this strange but I assume it’s because its more of an organic shape and recognizable to people from vancouver.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/mountains
Stars panels
In this design I was trying to add more stars to the pattern to go with the theme and name sake of my website “A Blue Star”. A 7 stars with a series of petals filling in the gaps between the stars. I had to add these smaller trapezoid to the edges of this design. I found that these trapezoid made it harder to make a lot of interesting patterns as they look like leftovers. This panel was fun to make but only has a few different patterns.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/stars
Circle Pie
In this pattern, I tried making a panel without adding the black dividing borders between the segments. I did this to make the manufacturing of the panels easier and cheaper as I don’t have to laser cut all the different shapes. It turned out okay but the mistakes in the paper segments were very visible if you knew what to look for. This design also allowed me to quickly test several different patterns without having to laser cut the patterns beforehand.
The pattern itself lent well to making several interesting patterns. People often comment that this is one of their favorites.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/circlePie
Rhombus Star
This is one of my personal favorite patterns. It’s a simple star shape using 6 rhombus that can also be illuminated to look like 3d cubes and other interesting patterns. Because of the flexibility of this design I have programmed many different patterns for it.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/rhombusStar
Hexagon Weave
I made this after the success with the rhombus star pattern. Lots of small repeating shapes that lend itself to making interesting patterns. This panel uses the most leds and smallest segments of any of the panels, making it also the most expensive and time consuming to make.
I personally liked this panel a lot as it gives me lots of opportunity for different unique patterns.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/hexagonWeave
Simple Triangles
This panel is simple large triangles that resemble nanoleaf patterns. I was looking for something simple to turn into a tutorial for instructables. Easy to make, easy to program, and cheap, but the patterns are not as interesting as the other panels.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/simpleTriangles
Heart
Simple geometry for a heart. I made this panel for a gift and it turned out okay. Each of the segments are different size and shape by adding a considerable amount of time to the construction of the paper inside walls. I liked how there were so many inside shapes of this panels that helped with making interesting patterns.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/heart
Sun with clouds
This panel was hard to construct. The clouds natural curved angles were very hard to construct with the paper dividers. They also left dark spots where the LED light didn’t bounce around well. The clouds didn’t add much to the patterns and the construction difficult.
I learned a lot from this panel and probably won’t be making another one like it.
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/sun
Sun without clouds
After the trouble that I had with the “Sun with clouds” panel. I decided to try this panel again but without the clouds. This worked much better and is much more iconic. It reminds me of the old world war 2 japanese propaganda photos. I used a different style of acrylic with this panel and the LED “hot spots” show through in most of the photos.
This one did not photograph well
Source files for this design can be found here https://github.com/funvill/StainGlassLaserPatterns/tree/master/sun
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