3D Fabrication

For this assignment, Jádé and I decided to collaborate again! Our ideas for the assignment went through many iterations before we arrived at what you see above. Originally, Jádé had the cool idea to film a stop-motion using glasses that we designed and 3D-printed. The glasses would be "magical" and transform the wearer's environment into a new world. We were originally thinking on a larger scale, but once we learned that 3D printing can take a long time, we realized the glasses needed to be really small. But not to worry! Because, what else is small...? Rats, of course! Our "magical" glasses would be rat-sized and transport the whiskered wearer to a cozy rat home. Jádé had some cool ideas for the angles and transitions we could create in our stop-motion, and I had already made a rat home for Judy Burton's Processes and Structures class that we could reuse! Alas, as we flailed around in Tinkercad, we realized our big idea might be a little too big for this week and decided to leave stop-motion making for the future. 

We started off by sketching our designs. We wanted the glasses to look like they could be made of materials a rat foraged for themselves. Trash, food scraps, sticks, vines, leaves, flowers, water droplets, and spiderwebs all came to mind, but we decided to stick with natural elements. We definitely encountered a learning curve in Tinkercad. We really struggled to create cutouts to get the shape of the glasses we wanted, and some of the details we originally planned for, like a spiderweb in the eye of one of the glasses, just didn't work with the program's grid system and our small scale. We were rushing a bit because we only had an hour to work in Tinkercad together after class, but ultimately ended up with something whimsical. 

The next day, we got together to 3D print our file with the help of CeCe, one of the studio fellows. We measured the face of my rat stuffed toy, Boris, and resized the glasses in Cura. Finally, we hit print! 

Watching our project print was really cool, and after about 20 minutes, our rat glasses were ready! After class, Jádé and I used pilers to pull off the supports and gathered painting materials. We went on a bit of a wild-goose chase because all the studios were closed for classes, but found a spot in the Dance Ed Program area to work. We had only a few random materials with us, so we had to use some unconventional methods to paint our glasses. Jádé made a stand for them using tape, a straw, and a cork. I had the idea to cover the glasses with a layer of black Sharpie before we painted them, and we found pipe cleaners to use as paintbrushes. Eventually, we went on a hunt around campus for more practical materials and bumped into someone willing to let us borrow some paint and paint brushes. We mixed different shades of brown and green for our vines and leaves, then dry-brushed them over the black Sharpie base to get our final product!

Overall, working on this project was a fun learning experience despite the stress of our time crunch. Introducing students to the possibilities of different technologies as creative media is important and something I hope to offer as a future teacher, but after our experience, I've learned there are a few practical considerations to keep in mind when it comes to 3D printing. Firstly, 3D printing can take a long time. If I were to have my students work on a 3D printing project, I would reduce this time by having them focus on small, thin, yet detailed designs. Working with a partner also saves time because only one design needs to be printed for two people. It's also less intimidating to work on a 3D design and fabrication project with a partner; if one person forgets how something works, their partner might remember, and any mistakes they make are made as a team rather than as an individual. 

I also wonder if some students might feel like making something small is insignificant. To avoid this feeling, it might be interesting if the assignment were to 3D print something to serve as part of a larger art piece or sculpture that students make together later using cardboard and found materials. One of the teachers I'm observing this semester is leading a sculpture unit in which his class is split into two teams to create large cardboard sculptures. Everyone on each team has a specific job title, like lead engineer or head designer. Similarly, students could come up with ideas for a sculpture as a class, then assign roles for who should design and 3D-print different elements.