3D Printed Clay Sculptures

Project 1

Goal: 

To create one or two small dome / cone like ceramic shapes and add metallic spikes. 

Inspiration Image:  

13th Century Larabagna Mosque in Ghana. Known as the Mecca of West Africa

Method and Challenge:  

This is experimental as I don’t know if the metallic spikes will cause the sculpture walls to crack during the bisque or firing stage. In this case, I want to play with and take advantage of the fact that the 3d printing material is soft and can be manipulated after printing.

For this design, I will use the larger Potter bot, with a 6mm nozzle because the hearty-ness of the structure is the most important element for the success.

Objective/Artist Statement:

Exploration of the African Diaspora is a part of my artistic praxis. In searching West African Architecture and homes, I found this image of a 13th century mosque in Ghana. The original structure is made of mud-plaster, very similar to clay.

In highlighting African culture and imagery in my work, I deconstruct, recreate, and transform them. Taking the idea of the spiked exterior and recreating it in sculptural work. Translating again the ancient mosque with ancient method of cermics and coiling, but created using 3d printing technology. Creating a connection between the past, present, and future.

Project 2

Goal: 

To create a midsized vessel using the grasshopper examples provided and the coilcam plugin with design features of twisting and undulating walls.

Method/Challenge: 

I want to create a form that is the outcome of creating something with this algorithmic 3d printing technology.  I'll use the sinusoidal functions to create this pattern and I’m not sure yet how to have 3 separate operations in one toolpath.

Objective/Artist Statement: 

           This type of vessel is indicative of water, coral reef, waves, movement. My art practice draws on oceanic shapes and forms. Often organic and creating new nature, this art piece will sit with the body of work I am building. This type of printing is ideal for 3d printing, because of the precision and algorithmic building that it can do. The riged walls a reflection of technology. I like to blend the natural with futuristic elements and using technology to sculpt ancient clay and getting a result that is uniquely artificial is aligned with this idea. I also see folds of the clay like drapes of fabric, with a background in textiles, I often work with drapes and folds of fabric to create forms.

Rhino + Grasshopper

Coil Cam

Potterbot

Obsidian Clay

Steel Wire 16 gauge

Nickle Chrome High Temp Wire 13 gauge

Clay tools

Palladium Glaze

brushes to brush on glaze

• Order Supplies
• Create small test clay bodies with different wires, thickness, and density
• The steel wire from the harware store survived in thick wire, the thin wire turned brittle
• the Nickel Chrome wire survived
• The clay bodies took the metal well and did not crack with shrinkage
• Cone 05 vs cone 5
• the steel wire was fine with a cone 05 glaze fire, but melted at the cone 5 temp
• The Nickel Chrome wire was bought from a ceramic shop and could withstand up to cone 10, but I fired it at cone 1 to be safe

Wire Research:

Copper (not ideal, melting point is too close)

Melting point of copper: 1983 F

Expansion of copper: seems to be slightly higher expansion than steel and Nichrome

Copper wire can actually be used as a glaze material effect, and this will melt https://youtu.be/spguFI-Ov4A

Stainless Steel (tested).

Melting point of stainless steel: 2500 - 2785 F 

lower expansion

Kemper is 17 gauge steel wire in 10 ft coils  pure steel (this steel wire will work up to cone 10)

Finding: Galvanized Steel has Zinc Coating - the zinc coating boils at a lower temperature this is why the thinner ones became brittle. and the thicker wire melted at cone 5

Nichrome  (alloy/nickel/chromium) (best)

Melting point of Nichrome: 2550 F

Commonly used in ceramics as support and firing

lower expansion

From Ceramic shop 13 AWG (0.072" diameter) able to fire up to cone 10

Melting point of Brass: 1700 F (not viable)

Kiln Temperatures, from lowest to highest:

Temperature at cone 06 kiln:  1828-1855 F

Temperature at cone 05 kiln:  1870 F - 1911 F

Temperature at cone 04 Bisque: 1945 - 1971 F

Temp at cone 1: 2109 F

Temperature at cone 5 kiln: 2167 - 2205 F

Temperature at cone 6 Kiln: 2232 - 2269 F

*Good idea to add a cookie  (cookie=mini shelf brushed with kiln wash: 1 part alumina hydrate, 1 part EPK or kaolin powder)

-kiln wash is so that if the glaze or metal runs it will not touch the bottom of the kiln it will go onto the cookie, and the kiln wash prevents the glaze from sticking

Glaze temperatures:

https://www.clay-king.com/kilns/pyrometric_cone_temperature_chart.html

expansion rates:

thermal expansion

Examples of metal combined with ceramics:

It’s often used inside as a support structure for a sculpture, and goes through the full kiln firing process.

https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/pottery-making-illustrated/pottery-making-illustrated-article/Additions-to-Clay-Bodies-Metals#

Metal can go into kilns without any danger, it’s sold at ceramic material sites here:

https://www.theceramicshop.com/store/category/9/32/wire/

For the Cone Shaped Sculptures I used the grasshopper examples 1-4 provided to the class. I used 'Parametric Cylinder with Base' Started by thinking about the nozzle size and the layer height

I also read through Jonathan Keep's Guide to Clay 3D printing. I found his nozzle width chart helpful and noticed that the layer height should be slightly less than half of the diameter of the nozzle.

I chose a 5mm diam. Nozzel, so that it created thick sturdy walls, but could still work for undulating walls.

I used the Parabola graph to make the curve I wanted to see, it worked perfect for the short dome

For the taller dome, it looked too wide at the bottom. I added a C input and added the square root graph. The two graphs combined gave me a taller, more narrow dome.

I used the Coilcam template to create the sinusoidal shape. By checking out the example file I could see where the staircase, linear, and sinusoidal groups could plug in to the main grasshoppper template. I experimented with all the options until the commands started to make sense.

at first the sinusoidal pattern was only adjusting the clay body horizontally, but eventually I found that by connecting it in to radius shaping parameter it would start to dent in vertically. The staircase function helped me to get the diagonal/swirling vertical shafts that I wanted.

Step width was 5, but I should have changed this to 1 for more fluid change.

When I started to print the domes, the clay had a lot of trouble sticking and peeling up. I realized I had the old extrusion factor in my code. Jennifer helped me to swap out that part of my grasshopper system. After changing this, the printing worked very smoothly.

I baby stepped a lot at the beginning of each print to get it right, and ended up slowing the speed and bumping the extrusion factor up a little.

The finished and in process prints!

all three sculptures needed hand processes after.

the sinusoidal base needed to be trimmed.

The spikey ones, I inserted the spikes right after and smoothed or trimmed the base.

A video of the 3D printer working

the tall dome ran out of clay 3/4 of the way through, so I used the opportunity to make a shape that was part machine make and part hand made, I hand coiled the top of the cone, smoothing out the walls except at one area to show the markings of the machine made.

Final step was to glaze the pieces and fire with the Palladium a metallic glaze

The short dome exploded during the bisque fire stage, my hunch is that is was not fully dry. The base i specified 3 layers (which ends up as 6 layers ). so it was really thick

For the tall dome and sinusoidal I set the base to 2 layers (which is really 4) and that was a good thickness to work with.

Final Glazed Pieces

Sinusoidal at cone 5/6

Spiked Cone at cone 1