Date: Saturday, June 1, 2024
Time: 9am - 3pm (lunch break from 12-1pm
Description: In this workshop, you will learn how to use the Potterware software to design your own 3D printed “textile cup” and use a 3D printer to extrude clay to make the finished piece. We will be paste extruding with clay, using a 3D potter, to create 3D printed ceramic textile cups inspired by the material culture of “basket pottery.” It is presumed that the first clay vessels were formed by women carrying water, pressing mud into a grass or reed basket to make them watertight. Eventually, these baskets were fired in earthen kilns, burning away the grasses, and leaving the ceramic vessel with the impression of woven baskets embedded into the surface. Later, the use of woven textiles, such as baskets, became commonplace as a method for making ceramic vessels. Over time, potters pressed textiles into the surface of their clay vessels to decorate them, sometimes using cords, notched wheels, or other implements to make markings that mechanically replicated the appearance of a textile. For this project, we are going to create woven or knitted-looking textures by designing with G-code, the programming language that speaks to 3D printers to design and fabricate our cups.
No prior printing or clay experience necessary.
Instructor: Virginia San Fratello
About the artist: Virginia San Fratello is an architect, artist and educator. She is a partner at Rael San Fratello and in their 3D printing research arm, Emerging Objects, based in Oakland, California. San Fratello is also an Assistant Professor in the area of;Design at San Jose State University. She holds a bachelors degree in Environmental Design from North Carolina State University and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University in the City of New York. San Fratello’s research focuses on the convergence of digital, ecological, and creative material explorations. Her research is applied through the design and fabrication of innovative buildings and their components, furniture elements and site specific installations that often look at inherent material resources and have embedded political consequences.