EILEEN
A wooden hair clip and pin.
I individually designed and manufactured a simple, ergonomic, and functional hair clip from a block of hardwood. The goal of this project was to develop a functional wooden object with a form that is comfortable to hold, effective at accomplishing its task, and easily communicative of its purpose.
Project is approximately 6” wide by 4” tall. Project was designed and manufactured individually. Materials used include: hardwood.
Overview
Course: Industrial Design
Focus: Research; Ergonomics; Manufacturing
Timeline: February 2020-March 2020
Ideation and Design Intent
While researching beautiful wooden pieces that also had functional purposes, I came across many lovely hair clips and hair pins.
With the goal of designing a hair clip that would be sold at women’s boutiques and shops with other staples, I decided to create a simple and beautiful hair clip that would be comfortable to hold, easy to understand how to use and wear, and would fulfill its purpose of holding up hair.
I came up with various design criteria against which I could evaluate my initial ideas:
Design Refinement
With feedback from peer and instructor critique and evaluation of my design intent, I decided to pursue a simple and geometric triangular design. I refined my sketches and created a preliminary computer model with realistic dimensions based upon competitive analysis and my own hand dimensions.
Manufacturing
For this project, I was given a block of wood that was approximately 12”x4”x3”. I created engineering drawings of the top and side cross-sectional views of my computer model, and glued those drawings onto the top and side of my wood block. With the drawings as guides, I cut out the hair clip cross sections on the vertical bandsaw. Using a mill and hand-help saw, I created a rough central triangular cut. I then smoothed the inner curvatures of the pin with fine sandpaper on a dremel. Finally, I used the mill to drill and ream the hole through the clip for the pin.
With the rest of my initial block of wood, I cut out a rectangular piece for my pin on the bandsaw, and turned the pin to size on the lathe. With both my pieces sized, I sanded my clip and pin, using 80-600 grit sand paper. Finally, I added an oil-based finish to my hair clip and pin.
