Unfold ~fab is Belgian Design Studio Unfold’s Reprap and Personal Fabrication blog. Recently, they featured some beautiful ceramic 3D printing.

Below is a carafe and set of cups that was made for the design fair in Milan this year. These pieces were shown in a Belgian presentation called PERSPECTIVES at the Triennial di Milano.

The design technique is unique. Rather than using 3D modeling, the designer uses vector paths.

The carafe is a story an-sich because 90 percent of the design in actually not done in 3D software but designed straight in vector tool paths, only the basic outside shell is a 3D file, all infill and the folded structure are designed using our own custom software called Gcode Stacker which takes SVG vector files as input and spits out Gcode. Every SVG layer is a Gcode layer. This gives finer control over machine paths and enables you to do stuff impossible in 3D>Gcode toolchains like for example intersecting lines.

For L’Artisan Electronique, Unfold modified an open source 3d printer to print ceramics. Unfold created a virtual pottery wheel in collaboration with Tim Knapen. This pottery wheel gives visitors a chance to ‘turn’ their own forms. At regular intervals, a selection of these designs is printed in clay and exhibited in the space. In this time-lapse video you see the print process close up.

Read the full featured post at Unfold, where these images were sourced.

3D Printing for kids: it’s a noble and imaginative concept. Just as other disciplines, from math to basic science to foreign language, are being introduced to children at a young age, there could be many educational benefits to giving kids a hands-on 3D printing toolset.

The team at PotteryPrint launched a Kickstarter project to raise $12,000 to build an iPad app where kids could design pottery that would be 3D printed. Unfortunately, only $6,000 was raised by the deadline.

Why Did It Fail to Raise Funds?

First, perhaps the focus on pottery is too much of a deviation from the core developments in 3D printing today. Pottery is a decorative art, and pottery pieces can be quite fragile. 3D printed objects in production today are mostly utility, though some are art, but all are made from commercial polymers to ensure durability.

Second, the key deliverable of this Kickstarter project was the iPad app. What will truly drive kids education in 3D printing is access to printers, not access to software. The PotteryPrint concept outsources the 3D printing itself, thereby removing that hands-on experience from the educational cycle.

I hope PotteryPrint resubmits a new project with a promise to make 3D printing as accessible as its design software.

Below is their Kickstarter pitch.