In the first six weeks of the New Making course, we were tasked to combine a form of digital fabrication with a traditional crafting method. I chose to combine 3D printing, specifically relating to printed glitches, with sewing.
Initially, I tried different ways to combine the two mediums. I did this by either pre-printing holes into the print and then by using a candle to heat up either a needle or a piece of metal wire and melting a hole through the already formed plastic.
For this exploration, I took inspiration from Matthew Plummer Fernandez. Fernandez takes objects and uses a 3D scanner to digitize them. He then digitally repairs the mesh and prints the finished product. This work explores the transformation from a physical to a digital and back to a physical object.
Using this as an inspiration, I 3D scanned a theatrical pin badge. I then used MeshMixer to reduce the resolution of the scan by reducing the triangle count. In my continued exploration, I have used the reduced resolution version of the scan.
To ‘fix’ the 3D printed glitch through sewing, I looked at different ways to stitch over the eyes of the pin. For my first try I pre-printed holes and used thin black thread to sew over the gaps. When sewing in a straight the thread would not stay taught, therefore going in different directions was more successful. The aesthetic created by sewing over the eyes has radically changed the mood of the piece. It is no longer a replica of the original pin but has become a new piece in its own right.
To develop the use of sewing over the eyes, I looked into different stitching techniques. I looked into cross-stitch and tried it with unusual materials. I stitched through a piece of wire mesh using thick wool. Placing this behind the eyes created a very different aesthetic to the previous try.
Finally, I created a print of the pin which included thin scaffolding over the eyes. This was then used to weave through to fully cover the eye area. I first tried using thick wool, but it was too strong and broke the delicate strips. It worked best with thin thread that could be evenly weaved through all of the gaps. I think this is my most successful experiment because rather than just adding thread to a 3D print, I have actually adapted the print to allow for the sewing to be effective.
