This year’s work focuses on meditative, organic shapes rooted in the craft philosophy of Sōetsu Yanagi - that the most beautiful objects are subtle, human variations on essential forms. The series includes 2 oz, 6 oz, and 10 oz cups; a 12 oz sake decanter; and a single-cup pourover funnel.

Current software uses a time-based approach to generate series of familial but unique objects - sets of objects which occupy similar design space but are each, in some way, unique. A basic vessel shape can be varied in height, radius, and curvature; can be modified with the addition of ribs or 3D Perlin Noise; and may or may not include a printed base, to acommodate multiple ceramic building techniques. A time-variable 3D camera view allows the user to visualize the design space containing a set of potential objects.

Exhibiting is essential to growing the public’s recognition of digital craft. This year’s work was shown at several juried venues, including West Coast Craft.

Development is focused on supporting multi-color prints generated by a fusion of computation and hand-drawn input. Sources of inspiration include mosaic tile, QR codes, classroom doodles, cellular automata, and mossy bogs.  Current work circumvents theoretically possible but time-consuming “slicing” workflows. Future work aims to print the unsliceable. In contrast to the predictable work that comes from existing tools, new tools enable new modes of computational expression and advance the idea of machine control as creative medium.