The Garden of Eden 3D printed fashion pieces were brought to life by a virtual collaboration over 3 continents and made their debut in a third. The project took over 6 months and many hours of hard work by the team to be finished before the public release of the Stratasys multi-material multi-colour printer . I worked on conceptualizing, 3D sculpting and the CAD designs in South Africa, Dr Daniel Dikovsky and Tal Ely from Stratasys on the Connex3 in Israel, and Turlif Vilbrandt from Uformia on customization in Norway. The pieces made their debut at the first 3D Print catwalk show at the New York 3D Printshow during New york fashion week February 2014, they were also exhibited in the GUILD Collectable Design Fair in Cape Town, 3D Printshow London and the 3D Printshow Paris.
From the beginning it was clear that to use the Stratasys Objet 500 Connex3 technology to its full capacity would require a new way of thinking, a different approach to how I usually design for 3D Printing. I have made many designs for different 3D printing processes. From Direct Metal laser sintering the selective laser sintering machines. What makes the Connex3 different is the ability to control both the material properties and the color. In the same 3D print you can have very rigid and rubber parts and all the strengths in between. The parts can vary from opaque to clear and color can be used to create beautiful pallets.
The possibilities are endless.
I started the collection by looking at nature, nature is extremely adept at combing different materials and the “jelly like” beauty of underwater creatures also made a contribution. I also studied shoes, fashion and art and of course the Connex3.
What I loved about the project was that communication was facilitated by my drawings. That art is used to fluidly communicate ideas between the different disciplines of design, materials engineering and software creation.
