Digital Design

This past Friday we invited K-12 faculty and staff into the Spark Studio here at Convent & Stuart Hall in order to learn how various students and faculty are currently using the machine in both practical as well as creative capacities. We had a superstar presenter from the 3rd grade who has mastered the workflow for tracing and cutting on the machine. He created his g-hack plane (pictured below) from a drawing and printed it on proofgrade draftboard. We also had an 11th grader come in to show the work he's been doing for his IB Visual Arts Portfolio as well as personal interest. He's created the game board pictured above for Settlers of Catan primarily using the laser cutter and was the first at our school to start laser cutting pictures. He is now working on a cube with each of the faces laced similar to that pictured below. I was also excited that several of my digital design students came in to share their work! Some of them have really started

It's been an exciting start to Digital Design highlighted by many successes and aha moments as well as many challenges along the way. Students just finished their First Cut project using hand-art scanned into the Glowforge Laser Cutter and then cut out without any engraving. To step up the complexity students then had to do something with their design to make it 3D or interactive in some way. Some created mobiles while others created a 3D rendering of a house or sunglasses that you can wear. Other projects include a vase of colorful cardboard flowers and a jelly donut! Check out their work here . I really appreciated how students found ways in which they could be creative to take their art beyond the 2D drawing as they figured out how to use the Glowforge. Up next is printing Photos on Cardboard with students publishing 3-5 photos in their collection based on a theme of their choice. I chose architecture focusing on modern vs. classic SF architecture including skyscrapers down