The vision I had for this project was something minimal, sleek, and somewhat mysterious. I really wanted to create something that was small enough for me to keep it forever no matter where I move after graduating from CU. I imagined something functional that I could enjoy seeing every day, something I was passionate about, and something that would allow me to explore some areas of engineering that I didn’t get as much time to explore in the past 4 years.

This vision led me to the idea of something that would be in my office, a decoration of sorts that while being visually pleasing, is not very noticeable at first; but when eyes are laid on it, has impressive form and function. I knew I either wanted something that would mount to a wall or sit on a desk. I eventually decided to go with this levitating planter because as soon as I thought of it, I immediately had a vision of how I would make it look and how it would be complimented by my desk and other items in my office setup.

In my initial designs, I overengineered and planned to make the design of the base much more complicated than it needed to be. I designed slots for pieces I later realized were removable and overall, my design was far too large. Since my design is inspired by minimalism, I took my design down about 25% height and a 10% in diameter, making it so the case was nothing more than that, as opposed to thick and unnecessary armor for the electromagnet.

As for the cup, I initially under-designed and made the cup way too simple to the point where it stood out when looked at next to the base. After some great feedback from class, I decided to make the cup in such a way that when you look at it, you understand that it cannot sit flat on a table, but needs to be lifted off the ground by its electromagnet base. I also decided to give it an hour glass shape rather than just a typical cylinder or cylindrical cone shape because I believe it will look much better considering the very slight perpetual motion.

Unfortunately, life, as it tends to, got in the way and I am behind where I would’ve liked to be in my design process. After the senior design expo this Friday, I plan to really polish everything off and get it totally assembled and set up on my desk. So that I have better pictures and videos to show in Part 2 of this blog post next week.

Today my base finally finished printing and I will be removing some of the supports and sanding it down to my desired look and feel. The cup was started this morning and is nearly halfway done as I am writing this now. Everything is really starting to come together and while I am behind where I thought I would be at this stage; I am nothing but happy and excited about this project and this class in general.