Digital Making: 3D printing and artisanal glass production

Abstract

Direct digital design and additive manufacturing are enabling new pathways for the design, development and distribution of material goods – radically redefining existing sites for knowledge exchange and our core assumptions of what makes a contemporary material practice. In the era of open source, democratized production, the relationships between an object, how it is made, what it is made of, where it is made, by whom and when, are directed by the maker. For the last forty years, 3D printing has been used as an ideation tool to model what could be. The steady emergence of Direct Digital Manufacturing (Singer P. et al. 2011) has enabled us to manipulate true-life materials to directly achieve the final object. This paper will focus on emergent modes of making using legacy materials, leveraging work done in foundry and ceramics into glass, and how 3D printing provides room for innovation not only with these materials, but also with the requisite digital processes in terms of software, hardware, and workflow opportunities. This design-led creative research looks at opportunities for innovation in material practice and also seeks out the affinities and opportunities, which arise when design methodologies are implemented alongside an artisanal, craft-based approach to making.