folded paper
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I recently stumbled across a name for the angular style that began in the late 1960s and became popular in the '70s: "Folded Paper".
That is certainly descriptive, yet it only barely describes my own recent style of design. Paper, after all, can be folded gently, and for that matter it can be curved. What I'm after is an almost unrelenting angularity -- corners as sharp as it is safe to make them, dividing planes as perfectly flat as the materials will allow.
Ironically, folding paper is a method I've considered for constructing models of my concepts. I could even work up image files of various models as cutouts, to be printed out -- and to be shared in this space for anyone to print out, cut out, fold and tape. Presto! You could have a collection of paper Tellurian Motors models littering/decorating your computer desk...
They'd all be to scale, of course.
Just don't count on me to actually do this. My plan for models is to begin with folded paper, then apply the template to some Lexan sheets I happen to have lying around. It would be nice to place each of those bodies on a remote-control chassis, but it would be much less expensive to build each chassis out of LEGO...
Can hardly wait to be cutting and welding square steel tubes, bending aluminum or (gasp) stainless steel, having glass cut to fit, ordering components, and putting everything together. To bridge the gap between amateur automotive designer and car builder, quite a bit of time, money, and effort will have to be spent.
Will it be worth it?
I personally think it would be helpful if there were electric cars out there that looked very DIFFERENT from other vehicles. My designs are unique, perhaps futuristic. It's all well and good to convert existing vehicles to electric power, and my hat is off to anyone out there producing entirely new electric vehicles -- but any of these could easily be mistaken for an internal combustion vehicle, if seen sitting still.
Do I expect to be copied? Absolutely. After all, the simplicity of my proposed manufacturing technique makes it that much easier for dedicated hobbyists (let alone budding manufacturers) to build their own...
Should I freely publish all specifications, making my designs 'open-source'? Hang on a bit there. That could result in who-knows-how-many crappy and potentially unsafe homebuilts with me as a named progenitor. Tellurian Motors would have to employ extreme caution in any such endeavour.
Instead, Tellurian Motors could perhaps become a 'component manufacturer', offering 'kits' in various stages of completion to home builders...
Problem is, I'm not comfortable. If I have to build 'kits' and then have them assembled by Harmonic Conversions (an entity as currently fictional as Tellurian Motors) before sale, in order to sidestep regulations and keep homebuilders from botching it, that's what I'll do.
But listen: If I only get to build ONE vehicle of my own design, it will be a major accomplishment. If I am then able to build but a single example of ONE other concept, I'll be happy as a clam. If I end up with a stable of one-offs, I'll be in Bliss.
If people want to pony up for their very own Tellurians...
Wow.
Phil Smith (fil)
September 20th, 2007
That is certainly descriptive, yet it only barely describes my own recent style of design. Paper, after all, can be folded gently, and for that matter it can be curved. What I'm after is an almost unrelenting angularity -- corners as sharp as it is safe to make them, dividing planes as perfectly flat as the materials will allow.
Ironically, folding paper is a method I've considered for constructing models of my concepts. I could even work up image files of various models as cutouts, to be printed out -- and to be shared in this space for anyone to print out, cut out, fold and tape. Presto! You could have a collection of paper Tellurian Motors models littering/decorating your computer desk...
They'd all be to scale, of course.
Just don't count on me to actually do this. My plan for models is to begin with folded paper, then apply the template to some Lexan sheets I happen to have lying around. It would be nice to place each of those bodies on a remote-control chassis, but it would be much less expensive to build each chassis out of LEGO...
Can hardly wait to be cutting and welding square steel tubes, bending aluminum or (gasp) stainless steel, having glass cut to fit, ordering components, and putting everything together. To bridge the gap between amateur automotive designer and car builder, quite a bit of time, money, and effort will have to be spent.
Will it be worth it?
I personally think it would be helpful if there were electric cars out there that looked very DIFFERENT from other vehicles. My designs are unique, perhaps futuristic. It's all well and good to convert existing vehicles to electric power, and my hat is off to anyone out there producing entirely new electric vehicles -- but any of these could easily be mistaken for an internal combustion vehicle, if seen sitting still.
Do I expect to be copied? Absolutely. After all, the simplicity of my proposed manufacturing technique makes it that much easier for dedicated hobbyists (let alone budding manufacturers) to build their own...
Should I freely publish all specifications, making my designs 'open-source'? Hang on a bit there. That could result in who-knows-how-many crappy and potentially unsafe homebuilts with me as a named progenitor. Tellurian Motors would have to employ extreme caution in any such endeavour.
Instead, Tellurian Motors could perhaps become a 'component manufacturer', offering 'kits' in various stages of completion to home builders...
Problem is, I'm not comfortable. If I have to build 'kits' and then have them assembled by Harmonic Conversions (an entity as currently fictional as Tellurian Motors) before sale, in order to sidestep regulations and keep homebuilders from botching it, that's what I'll do.
But listen: If I only get to build ONE vehicle of my own design, it will be a major accomplishment. If I am then able to build but a single example of ONE other concept, I'll be happy as a clam. If I end up with a stable of one-offs, I'll be in Bliss.
If people want to pony up for their very own Tellurians...
Wow.
Phil Smith (fil)
September 20th, 2007
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