As soon as my Delta Wasp 2040 Clay Printer arrived, I was pretty much scared of it – I barely wanted to touch it for fear I may break it.
My mind had not yet completely configured that it was in my studio and now I needed to start to work with it.
I went into a denial phase, and I covered it with a nice cloth whilst I waited to finish the training.
The 8-bar air compressor I bought was a “silent” one. Luckily it has wheels (which I attached myself… so proud) which means I can keep it outside, because it is so silent.
This however meant I had to develop an elaborate piping system to connect the air pressure to the Clay Printer.
I won’t get into all the technical details, but I am just thankful for the young intern at Adendorff Machinery Mart who showed me what connectors and extension cords I needed, along with him putting the connectors on the pipes.
He could clearly see that I had no idea what I was doing, and he even carried all my new purchases to my car (I am sure he was thinking to himself that I needed all the help I could get).
A little side note for anyone buying an air-compressor – you need a specific type of extension cord and not just any old one lying around (I would not have known that had I not read it in the manual).
When I had finally finished my training, I took a very cautious approach to working with my Clay Printer. After a while of struggling, I realised brute force may be necessary in some instances and I needed to stop treating the printer like a crystal vase and rather like the machine it is.
I know clay very well because we have been friends for a long time, and now we have a new friend, the Clay printer and WOW can I say that she is stubborn.
She likes things a specific way and is prone to tantrums.
She has exploded the clay all over because the tube was not correctly fastened and the air pressure may have been a bit too high; she has refused to push the clay through the piping because the clay was too dry; once she even had clay coming through some of her connector bolts because the clay was too wet… so stubborn.
We have been going back and forth quite a bit trying to find a new way of working together without me losing my mind and shouting at a machine like a crazy person.
I found myself finding faster ways to do things and with every problem I started finding a solution.
I had asked my dad (who has all the tools one will ever need to survive the apocalypse) for some help because to get the clay in and out of the air-pressure container along with the stopper needed a specific type of hammer, tools and upper body strength.
And since my arms had become more jelly-like that muscle … well it needed to be a proper hammer – I also decided to start adding some push-ups into my routine at the gym.
Getting the Stoneware clay the right consistency was a fight because you have to ensure that there are no air bubbles in the clay. Adding water and mixing clay whilst wedging clay adds air bubbles… which leads to more wedging, which again dries out the clay- so finding the right balance was a struggle for daaaays!
I finally started doing some proper testing, with the clay actually coming out of the extruder and experimenting with the flow and speed, finally feeling like I was actually getting somewhere.
I also managed to rip a cover off some coloured wires. I found myself in the situation where I was not sure which wire went where and I had flashbacks to the movie Air Force One where Harrison Ford had to cross some wires of the plane – the result either being that he would cause the plane to crash or that he would dump the fuel and force the plane to land.
He obviously crossed the correct wires; I however am not Harrison Ford so decided to get hold of the support team at Wasp to help me out instead.
The hiccups are happening all the time, but luckily my anxiety is no longer through the roof, and I am just getting on with it.
I however have not yet done a full-size print because I don’t want to waste clay and the potter inside me wants that first print to at least look somewhat like the 3d design, so hopefully the next month brings with it some finished works… holding thumbs!