Projects related to 3D Printing seem to be quite popular on the Kickstarter.com, the world’s largest online funding platform for creative projects (and a hell of a fun place to keep up with everyday). There’s a new one on Kickerstarter called PotteryPrint by develpers Cameron Schaefer and Shlok Vaidya, that looks to be something worth backing. Especially if you have kids, or still are a kid at heart.
As described on their Kickstarter page:
We wanted a way to introduce personal 3D printing to our kids without overloading them with complex design software.
So, we are building an iPad app that lets young kids express their creativity designing pottery pieces that they can have printed in 3D.
Not only will this get children excited about pottery as a skill, but it will introduce them to 3D printing as well.
Forget the kids, I want one! Isn’t that what iPad is partly for, to allow us all to explore the kid in us>
Watch the video:
There are two ways to use the app. In it’s simplest mode, an intuitive silhouette of a pottery piece filled in with clay and further designed. Simple and fun for the youngest of kids. But then there is “free-wheeling mode,” where users can create a design in any way you wish, with unlimited clay, brushes and tools.
Once your object is created, the user is presented with the option to 3D print their latest creation. You’ll be able to send it to your own personal 3D printer if you have one, or to an online 3D printing service and have it in the mail in a matter days.
There’s no demo of the app in the video, but the images on the Kickstarter page look great. And it looks like fun. Plus, think about this parents: would you rather have your children learning about 3D modeling and 3D printing on an iPad, or have blobs of messy clay all over your kitchen floor?
We think the PotteryPrint is fundable, and the app maker is only looking for $12,000. At the time of this writing he has 58 backers with a third of his goal realized. You can pledge as little as one dollar. $25 will get you the app when completed. And if you want to go all in, you can pledge $2,000 which will get you the app, your name on the PotteryPrint website, a cool sticky pad, a t-shirt, a $100 fabrication credit, a 16GB WiFi iPad, a Printrbot 3d Printer ($549 value), and maybe best of all a dozen of Cameron’s wife’s cookies.
More information:
Kickstarter Project
PotteryPrint website
