We all know what happens when you sit young children down at a high-speed pottery wheel. It’s not pretty, especially when the cat is used to ‘improve carving technique.’ However, clay provides endless hours of moldable entertainment for young minds. Add an iPad to the mix and you’ve got days of pure, clean finger-jabbing fun. A new app is taking it one step further by teaching children about pottery and how 3D Printing can make the creations real.
PotteryPrint
PotteryPrint is the idea of Cameron Schaefer, Shlok Vaidya and Brian Brooks. It puts a virtual pottery wheel in front of your child’s fingers with options to form, paint, carve and print. They’re seeking funding through Kickstarter and have have 14 days to raise $9k.
When asking Cameron why they chose Pottery as the medium, he had this to say:
We wanted to use pottery because it’s so intuitive for kids. I have two young children of my own and they both love clay, it provides immediate feedback and is easily manipulated. Additionally, it just works for a touchscreen/gesture-based app.
PotteryPrint is partnering with Ponoko, using their Personal Factory API, for the actual printing of the pottery. You can get more details on the project at the Ponoko Blog.
