Introduction

I’ve been working on the Distance project through Applied Arts Scotland for the last while, and it has been really rewarding.

The premise of the project was to bring virtual reality and the immersive environment to craftspeople of different disciplines. I had never really used a virtual reality headset, and was given the latest and greatest (Oculus Quest 2). I had some ideas of what I was going to do, but of course, as soon as I got involved with the headset, a lot of those ideas changed.

My normal craft practice is a little different to some, as it is kind of project based, as opposed to a more traditional linear progression. I decided that I would go ‘all in’ for the project and focus my efforts to making virtual objects and converting them into real slip cast ceramic pieces.

I started using a program Gravity Sketch, which enabled me to draw objects in 3 dimensions, give them colour and material qualities, and even give textures through pictures taken with my phone camera. I thought it was a very cool space, although my dexterity with the controls needed some work.

Gongshi

I thought I needed a base of investigation, so I decided I would make my own Gongshi, or scholars stones. These natural stone objects were placed on the scholars desk to provide introspection, inspiration, and creativity. I chose these objects as a base for investigation because they were completely natural formations, sometimes mimicking mountains or landscapes in the real world. I thought I would make these very unnatural objects in response to this new environment I had been experiencing.

I had been making a lot of bottles before the project started, and I thought I could incorporate this new found workflow into creating some swing top porcelain bottles. I created one using these Gongshi inspired 3D drawings, and exported it into the software I had been using previously, Autodesk Fusion 360. What I really liked about Gravity Sketch was that although the CAD was there, the dimensions and constraints were hidden. There was quite a lot of work in Fusion 360 to patch different meshes up, and together, and to get something I could use to make the bottle.

Then it was a question of splitting up the symmetries of the model to be able to make plaster slip casting moulds. This is where it got very complicated, because I did not consider the mouldmaking part of the process when I was drawing in virtual reality. By not considering the practicalities of this bottle, it became very complicated, with many more mould parts than I imagined. I persevered, and by subtracting the model from the divisions I created, I made case moulds with built in cottles (dams to hold the plaster in place) and started 3D printing them out. In hindsight again, I would have probably optimized the model and case moulds to be able to reuse certain pieces again tin the mould making process. Then I set about assembling all of these strange parts together to form the case moulds, and cast them in plaster. Drying the moulds out, I started casting samples of the new bottle in a stoneware I had in the studio. The slip was really rubbery, and didn’t behave very well in this new and quite complicated mould. I ordered some porcelain casting slip, and the casting process started to sooth out, and it became predictable and easy.

Sliced Vase

After this really complicated workflow, and because of it, I wanted to simplify the transferring of virtual to physical. I wanted to bring some practicalities to the virtual drawing space, whilst retaining the newly found freedom in CAD. I wanted to make weird stuff, but I didn’t want it to take so long to get there. The big bottleneck was the mouldmaking process, and printing out a 9 piece mould. I drew a quite strange object in Gravity sketch, and thought of slicing it and repeating the wedge I had made all the way around to make a tesselated object. I sliced 40°, which would make 9 pieces, and made the mould so it would interlock on itself. I printed the one case mould, and cast it 9 times to create the working mould. Below is a fired result of the same mould 9 times:

Parfait Bowl

I wanted to create one more object, and introduce some newly acquired materials, ( flexible filament for my 3D printer) and these new found skills in drawing and CAD. I decided to make a much a smaller object than previously, and chose a parfait bowl. I pushed out a mass in Gravity Sketch, and manipulated edges and volume to the point where I could see the final object. I was careful to keep the whole object with only one split line. I exported and refined the model in Fusion 360 again, and printed case moulds in the flexible filament. There were some difficulties with the printing as the flexible filament (TPU) is very slow printing to get the resolution I was after, and the kind and density of infill of the model made the object flex in weird and not so wonderful ways. I figured out that a hexagonal infill would keep the model from flexing more in one way than the other, and reprinted the case moulds. The flexible material really was a game changer when it was time to demould, and it worked very well, but was really slow to print. Below is a finished parfait bowl:

Conclusion

Think this project has been fascinating for me from start to finish. It has broadened my knowledge of different meshes and environments in CAD, and has given me tools to investigate more and more abstract and weird work. All of the participants have engaged with this new technology very differently, and their outcomes have been just as rewarding as my own. The technical support was always there if I needed it, although my ‘crash my head against a wall until it works’ approach was what I used throughout. There is a lot of scope for pursuing the virtual reality environment, and craft practice, and I am sure I will return to it in the future. You can go to my virtual gallery on the project here, and the group pentagon gallery here. The dissemination event is taking place on Wednesday the 2nd of February from 10:00 to 12:00, and if you’d like to hear more of what the other makers got up to, you can find free tickets here.