Tortuga, the Lamp

Sketching | Prototyping | Souldering | Fusion 360 | ZBrush | Blender

A lamp that illuminates any area and serves as a comforting companion.

This product was designed with the idea of companionship, comradery, and friendship in mind after a close friend of mine brought back a carved, beaded wooden turtle back as a souvenir from his home country of Ghana. Originally, this product was intended to be viewed as a gift between two friends.

Ideation

Reference imagery of all types of turtles was used to create an original abstraction of the turtle form. As the abstraction was finalized, the battery placement, button placement and shell opening was discussed.

Early Prototypes

A lamp was deconstructed to inspect its parts then the simple lamp mechanism was soldered together before any designing was done. Foam core, paper, cardboard, copper wire, and found plastic was used to construct early prototypes.

Post CAD

The Tortuga was 3D printed on Bambu and Prusa printers. The wiring was soldered for the light to work.

Modifications

Following the completed proof of concept of the white model, Tortuga needed to be re-modeled for mass-manufacturing. The rest of the project was redone in ZBrush. The wall thickness of the main bodies are 0.120", and the ribs are 0.06". Everything is molded top to bottom, with some slides.

All models sculpted in ZBrush and rendered in Blender.