Studio Potter 2015 Volume 43 Number 2 Summer/Fall 2015 | Page 17

Three-and-a-half years after buying my
pot, I moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, to
do a postbaccalaureate year at Colorado
State University. One of the exciting aspects
of joining the program for me was having
access to the digital fabrication lab that Del
Harrow has helped build there. I became
the teaching assistant for Del’s digital
fabrication course and was ecstatic to learn
the focus of the class would be to design
and build an interior for a second Airstream
trailer. My role was unique: I got to be a
student at some moments and a teacher at
others. Like the students, I had never been
involved in anything like this before. I felt a
personal connection to the Artstream, and I
was thrilled to be involved in designing how a
new group of people would view ceramic art.
Del had a detailed syllabus and schedule for
the class, but since the premise of the class
was new for everyone involved, he and I
were constantly changing and adapting the
plans. One of the biggest challenges was
the number of methods, techniques, and
ideas the students had to learn to navigate
the project from start to finish. Del and I often talked about how we could use a whole
semester just to teach any one of the skills
that were needed: learn the computer-aid-

ed-design (CAD) software, develop design
methodology and processes, work as a team
for a client, and learn the skills required for
building the final product. Del made sure the
students understood that all of these aspects
were important and connected and that they
influenced each other.
At the beginning of the course, the students
met with Alleghany to learn about the first
Artstream and what he wanted for the new
one. None of the students had experience
in ceramics, so part of what they learned
was what the Artstream does and why it
is important to the ceramic community.
In conjunction with Alleghany’s visit, each
student researched and presented a project
that used digital fabrication. These presentations spanned everything from outdoor
pavilions to clothing.
In this first meeting, we all began to understand some of the design considerations
and problems we would be tackling. One
of Alleghany’s main requests was that our
design be modular, allowing it to be taken
out of the trailer and displayed. After a lot
of brainstorming, we decided that other
important design considerations were the
successful display of ceramics, durability,
the shape and feeling created by the interior
space, the comfort and experience of the
Airstream’s visitors, the Americana theme
inspired by the classic Airstream trailer, and
the role of digital fabrication in its creation.
With these design considerations in mind,
Del and I started teaching the students
some of the technical knowledge they
would need, such as how to use Rhino, the
main CAD program we were using. When
they had learned the basics of building,
combining, and altering three-dimensional
shapes, we had them measure the Airstream

trailer, then make a scale model of it in
Rhino. Because the Airstream is made from
flat sheets of aluminum, the students were
able to build scale models out of laser-cut
paper, and later out of sheets of aluminum
that were water-jet cut and riveted together.
They were learning about the process,
challenges, and rewards of taking something
from theoretical computer model to physical
object. During the semester, the students
brought in material samples to test how they
behaved and how they might work in the
final design. Moving back and forth between
initial design ideas, building the CAD model,
and producing physical models were major
parts of the class. It became clear that all
three stages greatly influenced each other,
and if we were going to build an interior
for the new Artstream by the end of the
semester, we would have to find a synergy of
the three stages.
Unlike most college art courses, where
students work mainly on their own projects, the goal of this class was to work as
one group to design and finish one project.
Before we settled on the design, Del broke
the class of seven students into two groups,
and they used all the design and technical
information they had gathered to put
together a presentation on their group’s
design for the Artstream 2.0. Alleghany,
Del, and I would then decide on one
design. These presentations required the
students to show a cohesive design concept
with research, drawings, CAD models, and
3-D-printed models. From this part of the
course, the students got the invaluable
experience of presenting ideas to a client and
getting feedback, both positive and negative.
The students put a lot of work into their
presentations and models, but their designs
crowded the Airstream’s interior and called

17

Column

T

he first pot I ever bought was
from the Artstream. I was living in
Austin, Texas, and the Artstream
Nomadic Gallery came to the city
at the invitation of the Art of the Pot, an
Austin-based pottery collective. I probably
visited the Artstream three times before I
decided that I had to buy that teapot. The
following year, I was lucky enough to meet
Alleghany Meadows, Artstream’s founder,
at a workshop and to learn a little more
about the history and philosophy of his
traveling gallery.