Throughout this course, while working on the personal blog assignment and the group project assignment, the greatest challenge was to create beautiful yet printable 3D models of our designs. Also another challenge was to have control over the 3D software, in our case SkeetchUp. I personally feel that SketchUp is very limited and that the class could have spent a little more time learning the software skills itself. It was key to making successful and aesthetically pleasing 3D models.
While I worked my way through the project to develop my henna inspired 3D designed and 3D printed jewelry, I realized it even more that my software skills and the software I’m using are very limited. And that probably made me reassess my plan for the six weeks. The models that developed through the process don’t look the way I had imagined or the way that I had intended for them to look.
I feel the need to go back to the drawing board and develop my designs further to fall more in line with my vision. Also, to be able to successfully develop this in to a complete jewelry collection it would need a lot more work in the design process and the printing process. The hand drawn designs seem more developed than those that I designed in SketchUp. This has been the general experience not only in the personal project but also in the group projects that we worked on through the course.
Also, I feel like my experience with the business aspect of the class has helped me develop a vision for this project if I were to turn this in to a real business. It has helped me realize the risks and other factors involved in making this project take shape in the real world. Overall it has made me realize that I must do more research in terms of what software may be more useful to develop designs that are curvy and detailed like what I imagine from my henna inspired jewelry.