Travelling Hookah

[bardaux]

I go back and forth across the States on plane and like to take my MYA Bambino with me sometimes. Despite packing it with bubble wrap in the hard case it came in, I have broken 2 bowls and chipped the base doing this. This gave me an excuse to get a Vortex, but not wanting to repeat my mistake again I set out to make a more permanent and less trashy solution.

I looted my school's industrial design garbage cans for some pink foam scraps (the kind use for prototyping models) and cut 2 rectangles that fit in the hard case. I used a sharp 3" knife and an exacto blade for the entire cutting process. Stacked on each other they came just about to the height of the rim, perfect! I took out the foam and laid the bowl, base, stem and ash tray how I thought they would fit best while leaving a good amount of space between each piece. The base is the largest piece so first I traced the largest circumference of the base on the top layer of foam and cut that out. Then traced the bottom circumference on the bottom of the bottom layer bottom bottom bottom and carved away the transitional form. After some refining I had a space for the base to fit snug on one side of the box. The ash tray was a pretty straight-forward slot to carve, again one layer at a time. The bowl I made using similar technique to the base. Putting it in a corner and leaving space for the stem, I traced the largest circumference on the foam and started carving a downward cone like the contours of the bowl. I flipped over the foam, marked the center of where the bowl was and traced the bottom of the bowl's circumference then finessed it to fit the bowl perfectly. I also had to carved down into the second layer a bit so the bowl would sit down all the way. The stem was a trickier bit since the only way it would fit was to go in diagonally. I basically started by carving a rectangle that would fit the main cylinder, then adding slots for the downstem and ball-socket intake. I also had to make sure that it was at the right angle so both the top nozzle and the hose plug would fit when the lid closed. After I tested the foam pieces in the box with all the pieces fitting in correctly I wanted to cover the rough surface with something that would provide some extra buffer. I had some scraps of fake fur so I cut smaller pieces and used all-purpose spray adhesive to wrap the visible surface, then stapled the edges to further secure it. I have a placeholder rim made of bristol to prevent the fur from getting stuck in the edge when the lid closes but plan to replace it with something better.