Creating Digital Tools: Calibrating Digital Tools to Enable New Forms of Creativity in Product Design

The complex geometries and textures of non-­?rigid objects, such as crumpled paper or textiles, have presented problems for translation into porcelain. Despite liquid porcelain's potential of being able to assume limitless forms, the mouldmaking issues and its need for rigid moulds have hindered the possibilities of using non-rigid forms as bases for ceramic objects. 3D scanning and 3D printing over new potential in this regard, enabling complex textures and otherwise fragile forms to be replicated in durable materials. One problem is that of control over the process, to ensure results. Quite another, however, is enough to control to be able to employ 3D scanners and printers to add to the process and produce novelty, the way an artisan might employ a traditional woodshop. Thus, the project aims to understand the limits of the process, in terms of detail. But it also strives to understand the relationship between the parameters of the equipment involved in order to consider the 3D scanner and printer as more than replication technology, but rather in the way a craftsman might.