My Life Creative Goes High Tech

Adding New Tools For Creativity

2023 is shaping up as an interesting year for new creative outlets! I have several other new things to share later, but let’s start with something high-tech and computer based.

3-D printing!

Now, some of the more experienced folks in this field will be shaking their heads. They’re thinking “You just downloaded a file for a frame and printed it. Not very creative.” Ah, but that’s not how these were created. I designed them from the ground up.

In my “real” life, I work as a full-time substitute teacher (I’m permanently assigned to a single building). This past year, I spent four months as a long term sub for the engineering class (my assignment is at the Tech Center). This was an interesting challenge as my degree is in Theater! I had a great time, PLUS got the chance to learn new things.

Like CAD, Computer Aided Design. As I watched the kids work through their design challenges (under the direction of a teacher who actually knew what he was doing, lol!), I was fascinated. My dad was a Mechanical Engineer by training and carried that precise drawing style with him through his life. Of course, he learned to to do it all by hand, long before the days of computer software that did the same thing. After a few months, I had to give it a try. So with a book loaned to me by one teacher, and a source to get questions answered through the teacher I’d worked with before. It’s an interesting challenge that requires me to think in different ways. Which means it’s a great boost to my creative impulse.

To I did some basic exercises to get familiar with the language and format of the software I’m using (Autodesk Inventor), then I jumped in. Now, I want you to look closely at the thin brown frame in the photo. That was my first design.

It was a failure. If you have any kind of 3-D printing experience, you looked at that frame and thought “adhesion failure”. One of the things I had to learn early on is that your project has to stick, to “adhere” to the building platform. If it doesn’t? Then it curls, bends, or even breaks. The reason for the adhesion failure was in my design. You’ll note how much thinner that frame is than the others. I must admit that I thought I had a better grasp of metric measurements than it turns out I do. The dimension seemed right in the sketch, and in my head. They weren’t, resulting in a frame that would have been unusable in any circumstances. But, mistakes are part of the creative process, right?

By the time I was done, I’d learned to fillet edges and make multiple dimensional measurements all come together to create a usable and attractive frame. The material used takes paint well, so while the original frames were either white or red, I’m painting them the colors I want.

When I get back to school in the fall, I’ll hang several of my favorite personal photos on the walls of my cubicle.

Frames that I created myself.

Peace.