For week 4, we had to 3D print something. I was unsure of what to do for a while, since I knew I wanted to sculpt something and have it not abide to any rigid structures. To accomplish this, I used the program Blender, since I would be able to mold an object from scratch. After brainstorming for a while, I decided I wanted to sculpt a bonsai tree.

Although there was a learning curve to Blender, I eventually found it really intuitive to use. I started off with a ball of “clay”, slowly adding onto it until I had a small tree. I then converted the file to suit the 3D printers and printed away! There were a few difficulties at first, where it starting “spaghettiing”, but it was quickly resolved when I realized I forgot to add support structures.

Viola! The finished product. Removing the support structures was honestly a labor of love, but the end result is well worth it. I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out, and for presentation, I purchased a tiny planter pot and used some soil to give it a home.