Patent Application
20090294490
This invention relates to a bow maker and a method of using a bow maker.
Bow making has been employed on an industrial scale using fixed jigs with pegs for wrapping bow material. However, existing bow making jigs require that pressure be applied to the bow material to maintain tension with the pegs. Moreover, existing bow making jigs are not designed for reconfigurable use by a home user. Rather, existing bow making jigs are created for production environments without flexibility and reconfigurable operation.
For craft users, or home users, existing bow making jigs are not widely available because of their size, expense, and difficulty of use. Moreover, the skill required to use typical bow making apparatuses require training and significant time investment before a bow can be made that is not oddly shaped.
Thus, there is a need for a configurable bow maker having features allowing for rapid learning and providing high quality bows.
The features and inventive aspects will become more apparent upon reading the following detailed description, claims, and drawings, of which the following is a brief description:
Referring now to the drawings, illustrative embodiments are shown in detail. Although the drawings represent the embodiments, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated to better illustrate and explain novel aspects of an embodiment. Further, the embodiments described herein are not intended to be exhaustive or otherwise limit or restrict the claims to the precise form and configuration shown in the drawings and disclosed in the following detailed description.
In an example, with reference to
To facilitate the making of bows, bow material clip locations 160, 162 are provided for the user so that at least one end of the bow material may be tied down during construction of the bow. Clip locations 160, 162 allow the user to wrap the bow material around pegs 120, 122 without the end of the bow material begin pulled or otherwise unraveling from pegs 120, 122. To make different sized and shaped bows, the user places pegs 120, 122 (which may include a large number of pegs that are not shown) to configure the shape of the bow.
As shown in
In general the process for making a bow may include, in step 1, adding or removing pegs 120 from base portion 110 to determine the desired size of the bow to be produced. Pegs 120 may be held in place by twist and lock features where a 90 degree turn either locks or unlocks the pegs from base portion 110.
In step 2, a strip of craft wire 530 may be cut and laid across the middle of base portion 110. The free ends of wire 530 may then be slid under wire holder 150 to hold it in place.
In step 3, first end 520 of ribbon may be secured to material clip location 160.
In step 4, the ribbon may then be wound around four middle pegs 120 and then around rest of pegs 120 in figure eight pattern.
In step 5, continue winding the ribbon until bow has desired number of layers. If necessary, wrap on top of previously wrapped ribbon.
In step 6, second end 522 of the ribbon may be attached to the other material clip location 162 to secure the completed bow. The end of the ribbon material may then be trimmed off to match first end 520.
In step 7, wire 530 may then be released from clip locations 150, 152 and wrapped loosely around the gathered middle of bow.
In step 8, the bow may then be carefully slid up and off of pegs 120 while securely holding the middle of the bow.
In step 9, wire 530 may then be would around center of the bow until tight. The ends of wire 530 may then be trimmed.
As will be recognized by a person of ordinary skill in the art, the base portion may be of any desirable size and may contain any number of holes or peg locations spaced around the base structure. In addition, the base structure or pegs may be made of any suitable material, such as wood, plastic, rubber, or metal.
The present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the foregoing embodiments, which are merely illustrative of the best modes for carrying out the invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various alternatives to the embodiments of the invention described herein may be employed in practicing the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims. The embodiments should be understood to include all novel and non-obvious combinations of elements described herein, and claims may be presented in this or a later application to any novel and non-obvious combination of these elements. Moreover, the foregoing embodiments are illustrative, and no single feature or element is essential to all possible combinations that may be claimed in this or a later application.
With regard to the processes, methods, heuristics, etc. described herein, it should be understood that although the steps of such processes, etc. have been described as occurring according to a certain ordered sequence, such processes could be practiced with the described steps performed in an order other than the order described herein. It further should be understood that certain steps could be performed simultaneously, that other steps could be added, or that certain steps described herein could be omitted. In other words, the descriptions of processes described herein are provided for illustrating certain embodiments and should in no way be construed to limit the claimed invention.
Accordingly, it is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many embodiments and applications other than the examples provided would be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the above description. The scope of the invention should be determined, not with reference to the above description, but should instead be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It is anticipated and intended that future developments will occur in the arts discussed herein, and that the disclosed systems and methods will be incorporated into such future embodiments. In sum, it should be understood that the invention is capable of modification and variation and is limited only by the following claims.
All terms used in the claims are intended to be given their broadest reasonable constructions and their ordinary meanings as understood by those skilled in the art unless an explicit indication to the contrary is made herein. In particular, use of the singular articles such as “a,” “the,” “said,” etc. should be read to recite one or more of the indicated elements unless a claim recites an explicit limitation to the contrary.
