Richard Clarkson’s Awesome ‘Blossom’ Is Blowing Up: The Story Behind the ‘World’s First Inflatable 3D Print’
Posted in: Digital Fabrication
We’ve been fans of Richard Clarkson‘s work since he was a dewy-eyed student at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Design—which admittedly was not all that long ago—where he developed projects from the steampunk smartphone to a heady algorithmic chair. Now in his final term at SVA in New York City, Clarkson is a world away from his native New Zealand, yet he is more committed to his craft than ever as he looks forward to completing his MFA amongst the very first graduating class of the Products of Design program.
May 2014 will also mark the two-year anniversary of a project from his Victoria days, which was only recently cleared for publication (more on that below). Working with supervisor Tim Miller, Clarkson took the class on “Creative Digital Manufacturing” as an opportunity to experiment with revolutionary new 3D printing technology—and even though he completed the project over a year and a half ago, he notes that “Blossom” may well be “the world’s first inflatable 3D print.”
The heart of the design is a mixed material—thanks to a breakthrough in “simultaneous deposition of different build materials in a single print”—that can be rigid and flexible in different regions across its form. “[As in] nature, materials can be distributed seamlessly within objects for structural and functional advantage… The variation offers an opportunity to generate complex forms and dynamic structures that are impossible to make by any other means.”
While the video above nicely illustrates the final results, Clarkson shared more about the process—including why he’s just gotten around to publishing—and more details about just how he achieved his breakthrough.
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