Week 7: Back On the Ol’ Stompin’ Grounds

I’m back! It feels so nice to be back in the studio. My break was nice, and I’m fired up for some exciting research!

I’ve listed the projects I want to work on in the new term in my supplemental post. As I described my projects to countless family friends, I quickly realized that, despite my attempts at elaborately explaining them, they just didn’t make sense to the average lay-person. And that’s ok! But at this point I’m exhausted explaining them.

I got my toes wet in the simple task of making some magnetic labels for the whiteboard out front which lists all the chemicals we have. The magnets are moved to the “refill” area when they are empty and, you probably can assume, need to be refilled. I printed out some Illustrator-drawn labels onto Synthetic Adhesive roll paper, cut em out, and stuck them onto magnetic backs. I then cut out the magnets and viola! It was very satisfying.

While I was out, my boss played around with the 3D printer. He found some files on a 3D printing file-sharing site and printed them out. The first item he printed was a rocket ship, and we had some fun ideas of how we could display it in the studio (many involving compressed air and a string running the length of the studio). He also printed a very intricate file that supposedly took about 19 hrs to print. it was an interesting study in just how much the little printer can take.

Over the break, I did a bit of research — but don’t worry, fun research! One person that I’ve been really interested in is Shami Oshun (https://twitter.com/bluexheeta , https://www.instagram.com/bluexheeta/?hl=en). They’ve designed and made a lot of pieces involving 3D printed elements, and that’s exactly what I’m interested in 3D printing for: creative applications. Sure, it’s easy to print small plastic toys and little parts for things, but I think that the creative applications of this new medium is very, very far from being fully realized.