Honestly I never thought 3D printing could be a viable medium to make really beautiful organic sculptural things. I'm still way off its full potential  but I really surprised myself this time. I feel like I've got a step closer to realising the thoughts and feelings in my head, and thankfully they don't look too bad either, Phew! I get so wrapped up with horrible world news and social networks nowadays. I'm in need of therapy! So I'm trying to focus on a singular aim - To look for beauty in unexpected places.

I love the way this print came out, the black PLA by Arianeplast (Fabrique en France!) printed really well, when I look at it I feel genuinely happy, strange and nerdy but whatever works... The original Grasshopper model was tweaked after  test prints indicated problems. I've now decided to print two walls instead and reduce the layer height to 0.1mm to improve detail and strength on overhangs. Now  just one or two small flaws remain that will hopefully be ironed out in the next version.

I have even had a stab at signing my work. I decided on the Chinese character of my family name which is Tan but written 'Chen' in Mandarin. It looks the business!

Murmurations 2 will be even better, printed with translucent PLA with digitally controlled LEDs to give the thing more energy and movement to capture the feel of a real murmuration, which was my original aim.

In the meantime - Starling Murmurations 1 can be downloaded here - https://pinshape.com/items/33696-3d-printed-starling-murmurations-1

If I had to pick a most beautiful sight in the animal kingdom I would say it has to be a murmuration. In wintertime starlings flock together in their hundreds of thousands, flying in perfect harmony creating an illusion that they are one giant organism rather than a collection of small birds. This behaviour is still not fully explained but scientist think that it is a strategy that protects from predators and the temperature is slightly elevated inside a murmuration, a bonus in the middle of winter.

This beautiful video shows it all -

I'm trying to capture the beauty and energy of this phenomenon in a design of a 3D printable lamp. Still a work in progress but very exciting. Again I'm using Grasshopper with a Weaverbird plug-in to model it. I also stumbled on an amazing plug-in for Grasshopper call Quelea which is an 'agent based modelling' engine that ran a clever little flocking bird algorithm, total fluke discovery just on the day I needed it!

I'm not entirely sure how it will work as a light source but as with my lamps designs so far, I find myself not worrying about that small detail! See below for the progress made so far...

I finally found the right opportunity to start the full print but it was an 10 hour job, in two parts, and I didn't want to disturb anyone with the noise as evening came so through sheer necessity I thought of a great idea to move the printer into the washing machine cupboard located in the bathroom, where it could be shut in and the noise muffled from neighbours by shelves full of fresh towels! Quite a nice idea I thought but it also meant clearing out all the conveniently placed toiletries and bathroom supplies and moving them into another room.

The print went very well and I also found a nice old school tungsten filament bulb to go with the lampshade for some really great photos. Some of the edges of the print where a bit jagged and I lost resolution there probably through overly high speed settings but as you can see in the photos, It does not harm the overall look of the lamp when bathed in lovely warm light, quite a nice effect. The lamp is now destined to grace the loo. Should cast some nice shadows in a small room. It has been a great learning experience with Grasshopper and Weaverbird and I look forward to pushing myself next time to create even more challenging and useful prints.

MantRa Rays can be downloaded at Pinshape: https://pinshape.com/items/32855-3d-printed-mantra-rays-lampshade

I fucking love unintended consequences, well the good ones anyway... A very welcome one indeed here is from the Mantra Rays project.This selection is from series of images that were originally part of the exploration and form finding process for the Mantra Rays lamp and also to see what Grasshopper could do to help me. The result, I accidentally made some really beautiful renders! All I have changed from the original set is to put in a more natural sea blue background, as if it was a real manta ray sighting. Enjoy.