Before there was Boba Fett, there was Baba Yaga. Baba who? Baba Yaga is the Slavic witch who lives in a hut with the legs of a chicken. I’ve always liked that image of a hut walking around on chicken legs, so I got it into my head to make a coffee mug homage to old witch’s estimable hut. I call it the Mug of Baba Yaga.
But this was really just a wisp of an idea and nothing more. I had no clear idea how to make such a thing. Then one day I saw that Shapeways, the 3d printing company, lets you print things as porcelain. Give them a mug design and they can render a drinkworthy object. So printing the object became possible. But how about modeling it in the first place? My friend David Wey recommended that I learn Blender for this purpose. The Blender software is free, and there are plenty of YouTube videos that will teach you the basics.
Still, it was too much of a stretch for me to go directly to my chicken-legged vessel. I needed a simple test case. With a little work, I was able to create the model on the left. I call it my Saturn Mug because it’s must a mug with a ring around it. Or rather, through it. It’s an absurd test object. I made it because I wanted to know if the process would work. What would the print look like?
I exported it as an STL file and sent it off to Shapeways.
So that’s what I ordered on the left and that’s what I got back in the mail on the right. It came out pretty well, eh? You can even buy it, if you want.
I’m ready to rumble. Bring on the chicken legs.
Rambles Blog at Star Chamber 