The course An Introduction to Design through Making provides a hands-on introduction to maker education. Course modules can be found at the link below:
This forum strand focuses on the two-dimensional design project.
Use the Silhouette die cutter to cut out the shape of a Crowned Crane (i.e., the silhouette of the crane).
Use the Silhouette die cutter to cut out the image of a Crowned Crane.
Select another plant or animal characteristic of east Africa (such as an African elephant, a colobus monkey, a giant lobelia plant, the Arabica coffee plant, a lammergeier bird, or the giant groundsel plant). Cut out the shape and the image of the selected plant or animal.
Create a collage by combining the selected shapes with other shapes.
Post an image of the collage in this strand with a note about the way in which was created.
I started this collage with the outline of the crane and then decided I wanted to add an acacia tree to the scene. Putting the crane, the tree, and the leaves on different layers in Inkscape allowed my to move them up and down to make the tree look like it is behind the crane.
I needed something that would represent the ground, so I added the grass next. To tie everything together, I added the blue background.
The collage still felt empty in places, and there wasn’t as much sense of depth as I wanted, so I used the Pen tool in Inkscape to draw mountains on the horizon.
When I was ready to cut the pieces of the collage, I looked at pictures of sunrises and sunsets in Uganda. In many of them, the mountains looked red or orange, so I decided to use those colors for the background of the collage.
Overall, I am very happy with the image. It was difficult to perfectly align the leaves on the tree, and you can still see some dark paper around the top edges. If I were to do this again, I would probably trim the edges of the tree silhouette so that they aren’t visible under the leaves.
I wish I had read your post before I started! I could have drawn all sorts of things in my image. However, I am excited that I created what I am calling the “Thinking Man’s Gorilla”. Maybe later, I can go back in and add mountains. I may not, though, because this image seems to me a clean logo for some unknown product I can dream up!
I was excited that I had remembered how to use Inkscape to create the outlines. BUT, I need to practice more with Silhouette Studio because I had to look back at the directions.
As we began creating the collage, we started with the idea of using an East African hippopotamus. From there, we wanted to add dimensionality to the background, so we decided on a sunset. In Inkscape, we were able to create a sunset illusion with the rectangular tool. Additionally, we made a 2D perspective by adding the grass emerging from the water over the hippo. Finally, we added the sun that overlays the changing sky.
Throughout this experience, we found challenges when going to cut the individual pieces while working on Silhouette Studio. Fortunately, we discovered that highlighting and deselecting the piece we wanted to cut out was the easiest method for creating the layers.
We are excited to share our hippo in the sunset and look forward to creating more collages in Inkscape and Silhouette Studio!
Thinking through the design, we decided we wanted to incorporate a tiger and an acacia tree with grass at the bottom of the page to ground the figures. Afterwards, we wanted to make the background more intriguing so we decided to use 3 layers of half circles to mimic a sunset, layering each in front of each other. We felt that even with these additions the background still seemed a bit plain so we added flying birds in the background.
Each of the half circles were a different color and were placed in descending color from darkest to lightest. All of the figures and the birds remained black to play with the illusion of close proximity as well as distance.
The only setback was that the half circles weren’t cut symmetrically and were larger in size on the right side. If we were to do this again we would test a bit more to make sure the half circles would be completely centered, but other than that we are happy with the overall product.
My partner and I (Noreen and Genny) created a two-dimensional collage inspired by Uganda’s strong population of Nubian giraffes. To complement the giraffes, we added acacia trees, which thrive in Uganda’s savanna regions and are a natural food source for giraffes. We also designed a savanna background so the animals and trees would appear in their natural habitat, using a tan-brown ground with sparse grass and a clear blue sky.
We first designed all silhouettes in Inkscape and filled them with color to visualize the final composition. The sky felt empty, so we added a sun with a different colors to give the collage more color and dimension. Once finalized, we imported the design into Silhouette Studio and printed each component.
During assembly, we found it easier to layer two acacia trees (one brown and one green) by physically cutting off the green foliage and pasting it onto the brown tree, instead of separating the leaves from the branches in Inkscape. After assembling the collage, we still thought the collage needs some more color and dimension, so we manually cut out clouds and an extra layer of ground (a darker brown as a nod to the fertile and rich soil in Uganda). We also added a second giraffe in a different color so the scene felt more balanced/the first giraffe wouldn’t get lonely.
Overall, the collage turned out aesthetically pleasing and matched our vision. If we did it again, we probably use a sharper blade in the cutting machine or use sharp X-Acto knife to achieve cleaner cuts, especially for thin details like the giraffes’ horns, tails, and blades of grass.
My partner (Yujin Seo) and I (Jade Aguilera) decided to make a collage with the focus on a nice East African leopard. We wanted to do something a little creative by also incorporating scenery typical of East Africa. So, along with the leopard, we made a silhouette of an umbrella thorn acacia tree, a bird, and an attempt at a horizon.
In the process of creating this, we knew we wanted to do something cool with the leopard. Hence, we put him on a tree! Finding a good silhouette of a leopard on the internet was difficult, though. We wanted to make sure its positioning were good. Luckily, Inkscape lets us play around with the images we’ve opened, in the way we could morph the leopard to fit into the tree. We also removed branches from the original image of the tree so the leopard could fit more naturally on the branch.
We used squares that had a wavy shape at the top to do the background and the foreground into yellow and orange. We decided to use a nice light blue for the sky. Also, we used a half circle for the sun, putting it directly behind the leopard so that using black for the leopard were sensible and appealing. Lastly, we were able to morph the bird on Inkscape so the machine would cut it perfectly.
We had some issues with the sizes of the collage pieces, but were able to fix it on Silhouette Studio.
Overall, we had so much fun using these digital design software that could allow us to make a beautiful scenery!
Kennedy and I created a 2D collage of two African Bush Elephants and one Lilac-breasted Roller bird. We wanted to make sure to include many animals and thought it would be sweet to have two elephants to represent mother and baby. We also incorporated a baobab tree, as well as some grass, and a bright sun. Layering the images was a challenge, but very fun to figure out where each image should be placed. It definitely was a process, but it is nice to remember that nothing has to stay in one place, so moving around images to see what looks best is welcomed. We had originally started with one elephant, but thought there was empty space, so that is when we decided to add a baby elephant. Then, we added our nature elements to create a nature scene for our animals.
I started by finding a great photo of a buffalo on Google, along with some clean, simple graphics of trees and grass. To make the detailed buffalo photo easier to cut, I ran it through an online image-processing tool to turn it into a stylized, cartoon-like image with clear lines.
Next, I imported the images into Inkscape. I used the trace bitmap feature to grab the clean outlines and then used the “simplify” tool to smooth out the paths. Reducing the number of nodes is a crucial step—it ensures the cutting blade glides smoothly without snagging. I saved the final outlines as .dxf files.
I imported the .dxf files into Silhouette Studio and sent them to a Silhouette Portrait 3 die cutter. I used different colored cardstock for each element (grey for the background trees, brown for the buffalo, and green for the grass foreground). After a precise cut, I carefully glued the layers together to give the final piece its dimensional, 3D look.
Let me know if you have any questions about the Inkscape settings or the cutting parameters!
By: Precious Siisa and Emma Kuloba- Hawthorne-Scribner High School, Bududa Uganda
Hey everyone! Emma and I wanted to share a project we just finished in our Innovations class at Hawthorne Scribner High School. We wanted to create a scene of the African savanna hunt, and we’re proud of how the final piece turned out!
Our process started with searching online for the perfect images. We downloaded a few different elements: a leaping antelope, native savanna grass, trees, and the iconic figure of the Bushman with his bow and arrow from the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy”.
Once we had our images, we brought them into Inkscape. First, we used the Trace Bitmap feature to get clean, sharp outlines from the photos. After that we used the Simplify tool to smooth out the paths and reduce the number of nodes.
After saving our outlines as .dxf files, we imported the files into Silhouette Studio and sent them to our Portrait 3 die cutter.
We picked out different colored cardstock for each specific element to give the piece some depth—green for the grass, grey for the trees, brown for the bushman, and a bright yellow for the sun. After the Portrait 3 cut out all our pieces, we glued the layers together onto an orange background.
It took a lot of patience and teamwork to get everything lined up perfectly, but we love the final 3D effect.
We started our project by brainstorming an idea, eventually settling on a boy riding a carabao in a farm setting. The next step in our process was creating a prompt for ChatGPT to help us visualize our idea, and to make sure we were both on the same page.
This is the prompt we ended up using:
“Help make a simple collage artwork. It will be composed of several sheets of layered cut paper. The construction will be very simple, comprised of only a few layers.
Background: Filipino farm foliage, sky, maybe sun and or clouds. Maybe a palm/native tree.
middleground: Rice farm.
Foreground: carabao pulling a plow. The carabao is ridden by a child.
Above the carabao, some grass or something over the very bottom”
First, ChatGPT generated a very complicated image, but by prompting to make sure the image was very simple, and including a reference photo from this forum, we were able to generate the following image:
We then prompted ChatGPT to break that image into its composite parts and imported those into Sangala Studio. After tweaking with their placement and size, we arrived at the following design:
We will likely improve the coloring of the tree in the background, possibly by cutting it once in brown and once in green and manually splicing the two parts together. Additionally, we experienced difficulty in Sangala studio with tracing rough grass, but may still add some to the very foreground of our collage.
Even though Eli and I are working together, we created two drafts of the image for the two-dimensional design. We created a folder into which we are compiling our images, and to create this initial collage, we each experimented with the images, creating perspective, and with using Sangala Studio to achieve something we were happy with.
Weirdly, I was drawn to an image of vultures, and that was all I knew for sure that I wanted in the image. But, I started with an image of rock formations from Canyonland National Park in Utah because that gave me our “Western” backdrop. I then chose the Saguaro because I wanted it to be the “largest” (closest?) image in the landscape. Then I looked over at what Eli was doing and saw that he was playing around with layering colors using the pen tool in Sangala Studio–it was a cool effect, so I added the colored layers as well.
Then I added my vultures–but in the initial image, the vultures were all the same size, so I learned how to break the image apart using the nodes tool: in the nodes tool function, I selected a specific vulture by dragging the cursor over it, then I got out of the node tool to resize the one I had selected. Tricky, tricky!
Peeking at Eli’s image, and knowing that our two will become one, I also added the image of the horse–and then because two “black/brown” images looked unbalanced to me, I added a timy armadillo.
I realize, though, that Eli and I need to discuss what should be the focal point of our project–the horse, the cactus, what?
Hi, Natasha, and hello all! My initial thoughts on the project revolved around an American Western landscape scene, inspired in part by artists Matt McCormick and Charles Marion Russell. Rather than having an animal (like a horse) as the focal point, I like the idea of taking the focal point away from what would most commonly be front and center, and instead focusing on either the land formations, the sun, or cacti. As Natasha mentioned, her and I have not spoken about focal point, which I understand will be important moving forward, especially when we break down our collage into shadow boxes and mosaics. Our approach of working on separate iterations in tandem seems to be productive, but I believe that communication will be key in creating a dynamic and connected final project(s). I have been using Pinterest as my main source for detailed images, and have been playing with the Pen and Shapes features on Sangala to create more abstract layers. I know that Natasha and I agree that a transitioning sky background make up our bottom most layers, and in our next class meeting we will discuss focal point, as well as how we would like to layer the landscape. We have been using a shared folder (on OneDrive) to upload images that we are interested in adding to our collage, making it so that we can compare and contrast ideas, as well both have easy access when creating on Sangala. I look forward to seeing what everybody has been working on and continuing to share Natasha and my progress on our collage.
Afterwards, we used generative AI to outline and label layers. Initially, we used ChatGPT but ran into errors that did not allow generation of new images. After a few tries, we found a version we liked using Gemini. We then switched back to Chatgpt to split the layers into individual photos, which made it easy to create outlines in Sangala Studio.
We then found colors that were available to us in the classroom, then replicated them in Sangala Studio. We then organized the layers together into one sketch.
