Now that we’ve established a little more context about the mysterious handles, i will let you in a little secret.
Though we have worked on the handles, they are now back where they belong and all we have left is the sweet memory of them and the pictures we took.
Now, some of you may have a healthy relationship with your camera.
I haven’t. I think i have a problem.
I can’t help but take way too many pictures and then refuse to trash most of them because who knows, they may be useful at some point.
My daily job isn’t helping: digital photography is of tremendous help in the conservation/ curation trade. Taken a mechanism apart ? Please tell me you took picture so we can put it back!
Can’t remember the way the clothes were draping the mannequin ? Look at the before pictures.
Why on earth is that fibula green ? Look at the sampling site pictures, see that moss ?
Long story short, when i came upon the idea of trying to make a 3D model of the handles and though i couldn’t look at the models directly, i had numerous pictures of them. A quick survey of the different methods of modeling made me choose the hands on approach. There was not enough pictures to allow for photogrammetry to take place.
See ? I do need to take more pictures !
There has been numerous iterations of the 3D model. Some fully hard-surface, some fully sculpted. In the end, it was a combination of hard-surface and lattice deformation that yielded the best results and hours upon hours of trials and errors. It’s a process. All in all Blender and I had a wonderful time !
Here are the results of one of our first dip into the 3D world.
The great thing about 3D models is that you can actually do a lot with them.
Change the color ? No problem !
Cast iron (the early years!) ? Golden copper ? Old copper ?
Change the material ? You got it !
Terracotta ? Porcelain ? White modeling clay ?
Here’s the model downloadable on Sketchfab.
Want to give it a try yourself ? Here’s the model downloadable on Sketchfab.
Need fancy handles for your DIY project ? Here’s the .stl file to 3D print this model.
Have fun and don’t forget to share your results !
PS: Am I the only one that thinks the handle resemble a monkey head ? Suzanne is everywhere…