At the London Design Festival, Gareth Neal, a British designer, and The New Raw, a Dutch studio, presented their Digitally Woven series. The collection consists of a pink chair called Loopy and three vessels resembling woven baskets, all made using a new 3D-printing technique and thrice-recycled plastic. In contrast to conventional 3D-printing methodologies, these objects were printed in loops as opposed to layers.
The project explores how traditional craft techniques could be incorporated into a new form of 3D printing. Neal explained that the print lines on the 3D printer were fashioned after hand-drawn lines, resulting in a gentle look inspired by natural movement and traditional craft methods.
Gareth Neal and The New Raw aimed to create a method that can adjust to mistakes in the final product, reducing the amount of waste caused by printing errors. Neal and The New Raw created products for the Digitally Woven collection by interlinking various patterns of loops. This increased the objects’ durability and allowed them to utilize thrice-recycled plastic – a substance that is seldom used.
All photography courtesy of THE NEW RAW and GARETH NEAL
