I've been looking at how glass is made, either traditionally or in large scale factories. I do like the idea of craft being supported or enhanced by technology (mainly robots), much in the way I've been using the robot arm for fabrication.  It's rather obvious that moulds are an essential part of both manual glass... Continue Reading →

  Kuma in action. Turns out, it's a very slow process (cutting blue foam with a hot knife) so I had to speed up the video. Apart from being slow, we managed to optimize the speed of the robot according to the amplitude of the cones and they seem to be cutting nicely now. Here... Continue Reading →

We have been exploring ways to use the capabilities of Kuma, our larger robot hand that is mounted on a track.  We quickly decided on using the hot knife cutting tool as it seemed the one that offered the most possibilities for now. We have a large stock of blue foam perfect for this task,... Continue Reading →

A few of us continued to New York for another 3 days. It's a wonderfully eclectic city with lots of interesting architecture. We walked a lot, saw a lot, and I'm certain that I would need another few weeks to cover everything still. I'll just post some highlights here. The JFK main concourse is still... Continue Reading →

    Another 6 hour trip and we were back in Chicago, this time in a much nicer hostel. I absolutely loved the city, which seemed a perfect mix of urban and suburban in one's grasp. I started off with a night tour of the city and a blues concert, followed by an extensive Frank... Continue Reading →

The studio research trip was very useful and enjoyable! After landing in Chicago and spending a night in the worst hostel I've ever stayed in, we went on to Detroit. Detroit has a bad reputation, as far as American cities go, being the second most dangerous city in the US (ref). It rose and fell... Continue Reading →

Moving on from my previous posts on leaded glass and Ben&Jerry,  I have been trying to recreate some of the products.  I had in mind experimenting with some of the qualities and engage with some of the manufacturing techniques (folding, extruding, and casting). Mass customization could be achieved by using molds (CNCed, 3dprinted, etc) that... Continue Reading →

We've started a robot workshop to learn how to operate and use creatively the 3 robot arms that the department has. For now, meet Itto. The first session was meant for us to familiarise ourselves with how they operate, potential, and limitations. Itto is our smallest robot so we tried instructing him to draw some... Continue Reading →

Equally part of the material and product research we've been doing so far, I had a closer look at glass and leaded crystal production, specifically a high-end couture glass (Versace, Red).  At the beginning of the summer I had a walk around a glass factory in Avrig. The lovely staff answered all my prying questions,... Continue Reading →