Algae Iris

This is the second of three major projects in the Iris series.

In this project I experimented further with the triangle-scissor mechanism and find out what would happen if I pulled the iris out of the flat plane by creating an iris from fewer than six pairs. That experimentation led to this lamp which evokes the microscopic spherical form of algae colonies.

The most difficult part of creating this was finding a suitable way to connect each pair to the others, since the angle between pairs changes as the form expands. I eventually landed on designing and printing 3D angled brackets made of flexible filament. While this solution works, I’m not satisfied with it and I plan to return to this problem in the future.