Additive Manufacturing and its Potential Impact/Effect on Craft Practice

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (or 3D printing) broadly refers to a group of technologies that create objects using material deposition rather than by reductive means, which describes most means of traditional manufacturing. This study is interested in the use of these additive manufacturing technologies by craftspeople located around the world. Craft practice has a tendency to be associated with manual processes and not with technology. This study questions whether these ideas are relevant to a new generation of craftspeople. The studio component of this study aims to push the boundaries of what is possible to create using additive manufacturing and the related technology of computer-aided design (CAD).These examples, which take the form of a baseball hat and a gown, are deliberately complex in nature in order to push the technology to its very limits. The baseball hat is significant for sheer complexity of a single 3d printed part, while the gown represents the World’s first full length evening dress printed as a single part. These works inform the theoretical exegetical part of this study and form a backdrop to the findings/conclusions of this study.