I’ve started work on my next project – a 3D printed book of Louis Sullivan‘s early ornaments from examples here in Chicago. I’m working with City of Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson. Together we will scan, produce and publish this first of it’s kind publication giving the public access to never before seen examples of Louis Sullivan’s beautiful and ornate architectural pieces.
Last week we began this process by producing some test scans of three pieces from Tim’s collection: a tile from the Selz House, a brick from the Barbe House and a piece of iron work from the Jewelers Building. We used a Next Engine scanner at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to capture the 3D point cloud information and the Geomagic software application to process this data into some usable. We then cleaned up the files and created prototype “pages” in Netfabb. Each piece was then printed on a Makerbot Replicator machine in grey PLA plastic.
As you can see from the photographs we have achieved some remarkable detail. Additionally I have posted a short video to Vine demonstrating how to “pull” a copy / print from the negative using a malleable material like Play Doh or clay.
