This was research in an attempt to replace the "hand signature" of the traditional craftsman with one of the contemporary technologies. The Turkish coffee cup was used as a study case. To emphasize the differences of the time needed to create new and complex structures and decorations, then, and nowadays. The ABS wire 3D printer was chosen. its most noticeable disadvantage (compared to the STL 3D printer for example) is that the support material for the model is made from the same material as the model itself. The first try was to take a generic glass, draw a 2D arabesque pattern on it, using CAD software, and with simple action, we multiplied it around the cup and extruded it. While setting the cup for print, it accidentally got placed on its side and not on its base (the red cup).

This was the breakthrough of this project. Because of this mistake, the printer built massive support which created a special new structure/pattern around the model, which was different completely than the one we designed. This led to the understanding of how to manipulate the printer to create a very complex structure, only by the way we place the cup in the printer's tray, using the most generic cup shape as a base.

Another try was checking how much we can push the printer's limits to create more and more complex structures, by increasing the angle at which the cup was placed on the tray. When placing it in gentle angles, new handles for the cups, which weren't in the original CAD model, were created.

When placed at an acute angle, the printer created distortion, the model collapsed and the printer stopped working before it finished building the model.

 

2014

Research

In Collaboration with Ehud Eldan

Photography: Oded Antman

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