PolyTerra 3D Filament

 Shortly after I started the whole 3D printing project, the idea that I was going to be contributing to the plastic problem on the planet came home to roost. Since then, I've been working on the problem, and this beauty is the beginning of the answer.   

    PLA, or polylactic acid, is a resin made from corn starch. It is marketed as biodegradable, but for that to happen in a decent amount of time (less than years) it needs to be composted under factory conditions. The PLA I've been using to print is in that category. The filament in the picture is a compostable variety that contains a bio compound that makes it degrade much faster than regular PLA. It is made by PolyMaker and is called PolyTerra. PolyMaker plants one tree for each spool of filament sold, and the spool and box are compostable as well. The only flaw is the plastic bag the filament comes in, which is necessary because PLA is hydroscopic, meaning that it absorbs water from the air. I hope PolyMaker can eventually find a compostable solution for that storage issue as well some day.

     I'm currently shopping for a composter that will get warm enough (140F) for decomposition to take place. I'm also making friends with Food Services at Ferris. Scott, their manager, also has an interest in a composting program, so we are combining forces to get this project off the ground. He will provide food waste and cardboard, we are planning to contact the grounds department for yard waste, and in the mix will go the extra plastic that is created by mistakes and support material generated during printing. If this filament prints nicely, I'll try to get the Makerspace, the 3D printing lab at Ferris, to start using it, too. In the end, the compost will result in good soil, which we hope to turn into an herb garden for Food Services. 

    This, plus dumping the two classroom system and taking my vitamins has cheered me right up.

     

     

 

Look what I got :)

     Well, I'm being held captive by a mountain of grading, but I'm being kept alive by sneaking to my easel or marimba for a few minutes during breaks. Two classes to go and then I can get some work done.

     In the meantime, look at this! Our excellent student assistant 3D printed this for me after I mentioned that if I ever get a stone grained to level, I would probably draw the knot as a first litho in the shop. I've been turning this over and over in my hands to try to get it to match up with the first one, but now that I see it here, I think it is a mirror image of the simpler version. I love the complexity of it; I could get lost in all of those negative shapes. Plus, the cast shadows are amazing. I think I'll grain that stone with the ultra fine #5 grit (which makes no sense, because all the other grits are numbered in the 2 and 3 digit range, but whatever). It's fun when you can imagine how something will look before you even start it.

    I've also recently realized a mistake I made in drawing the first one, which is that I based it on a cube and it isn't one. I haven't actually measured the proportions yet, but my guess it is more like half a cube. What do you call that?

A Torus Knot?

   This showed up in my mailbox today. It was a gift from the student who started my math journey by encouraging me to stop flying by the seat of my pants and actually plot spatial relationships when drawing forms with linear perspective. I am forever grateful for his gentle nudge in that direction.
    I've been asking him about this shape, which I think is called a torus knot. I told him I didn't understand the geometry at all, but I was going to make one out of clay so I could just draw it the old fashioned way. The next day, he presented me with this 3D printed model so that it might 'sate my curiosity and then I would stop pestering him'. 😐
     But still, I love the gift. I think drawing elongated ellipses on three different planes will be a good place to start on this problem. And I've purchased Geometry for Dummies. So in the future, I can maybe keep my pestering to a minimum.