The Monolith
Fall Semester 2025
Material: Wood
The purpose of this project was to create an ergonomically shaped object that could fit comfortably of a hand of any shape or size in at least two different ways.
I focused on the natural curves of the palm and thumb to base my final piece on. I created a almost sphere-like contour for the main body to encourage the fingers to naturally wrap around the monolith.
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CLAY AND CONTOURS
I first experimented with clay by heating it up and holding it in various comfortable positions and molding it into compelling shapes. I then passed around every good version I had to teachers and other students of different hand sizes and worked ahead while implementing their input into the design. I then worked with line contour sketches before proceeding to building to understand the structure and form of the shape fully before starting to build.
GRITS AND PIECES
To get the most accuracy, I sliced up my clay model vertically in order to trace the slabs to transfer the shapes to wood. I then referenced the cross contour drawing to understand how to pieces fit together before sanding the sides smoothly and glueing and clamping them together. I then used the dye grinder to carve the curves of the monolith. My last step was to hand sand starting from a 200 grit going all the way up to a 20000 grit sandpaper.
