Oooh, here’s my latest toy and obsession! I’ve been pondering the possibilities of 3D printing for several years actually, but was intimidated by having to learn CAD programming, so kept putting it off. I finally decided it was time to just make the leap, so waited for the newest 3D printer shootout issue of Make Magazine for the newest reviews, and decided on the Prusa MK3. That was actually the easy part, harder was figuring out what program(s) to use - I really wanted to be able to make free-form organic shapes, and I needed something with a fairly easy learning curve since I’m new to CAD. I ended up with Sculptris by Pixologic which really feels to me like sculpting with clay, which makes me really, really happy. I’m actually using a combination of three programs to get to my final printed shape, Sculptris to get the basic shape, then I import into Meshmixer to make the shape more printable (there are options in meshmixer that aren’t available in Sculptris), then finally I’m using the slicer program that comes with the Prusa to finalize the print before printing.
The printer itself had a bit of a learning curve, I kept losing my prints at first from it coming off the print bed. Turns out a stick of Elmers Disappearing Purple glue stick is absolute magic! Also just learning what I could get away with as far as how small an area I could have touching the print bed vs the volume of the rest of the piece. I seem to have it mostly figured out now, and most of my prints seem to be successful.
My end goals for my 3D printed objects is to be able to print components that can be used in larger sculptures. I want to make printed oozers that I can wrap with wire and turn into a larger piece, and to be able to make multiples in varying sizes. This seems to be working fairly well so far.
I’ve also managed to solve a longstanding challenge that I have wanted to do for awhile now but hadn’t figured out a solution to. The idea of oil painting on an organic shape to use in my sculptures has been an obsession of mine, but until now finding the right object and surface has eluded me. Until my beloved Prusa! Using a layer of plastic primer followed by a layer of oil painting gesso, I’m able to make the perfect surface to paint on, and my first experiment with it worked beautifully! Waiting for the surface to dry so I can start wire wrapping and sculpting with them, so excited!
Anyhow, I’ll update with finished pieces shortly!!
