ELIZABETH BANDA
"Spill" Melting Cutlery Process
How can I design a new set of cutlery without losing its meaning?
Key Design Implications
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My cutlery should be versatile
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My cutlery should have different levels of depth in order to keep things interesting
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My cutlery should be comfortable to use
Brainstorming ideas for an interesting cutlery set starting with the butterknife
Before sketching, I thought of an audience and context for this butterknife. I decided to go with the “Nouveau Riche”, or the new rich, such as influencers and celebrities.
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I’d imagine this cutlery set would be used at an affluent dinner party- like at the met gala or something of the sort that involves an artsy theme as an expression of wealth.
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I got feedback from my peers and narrowed down the sketches to two designs:
I created prototypes for both designs to see which design I liked better as a physical design.
I asked for feedback once again and ultimately chose the melting knife to move forward with. Everyone I asked liked that “the blade was involved with the design” and that it wasn’t just the handle of the knife that I was designing.
Thus, I got to work designing a melting cutlery set.
A Melting Cutlery Set Named “Spill”
To finish my cutting board, I laser etched my signature into the back of the board and applied cutting board oil.
3D Modeling the “Spill” Cutlery Set
I 3D modeled my cutlery set using Rhino 7 on my laptop.
I then sent my knife to get 3D printed using resin due to the intricate nature of my design.
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Sadly, a few of my drips on the blade had broken off in the process of taking the structures off after printing.
Along with that, I realized that the bottom of the handle of the knife was not very comfortable to hold due to one of the drips.
I went back into Rhino to tweak my design, making the drips thicker and removing one of the 3 drips on the bottom of the handle.
I 3D printed the piece again and this time it came back perfect!
I painted the knife black because I thought it would look best made in brushed black stainless steel.
And it was done!
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Testing & Feedback
The knife felt comfortable in the hand, with the drips on the base acting as more support when holding the knife.
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During crit, everyone seemed to like how clean the finished product was and how smooth it felt in the hand. I did get questions on why it was larger than my first prototype (Which I explained after), but other than that the design was a success! I had created a knife that could be functional in cutting and spreading all while making the entire design of the knife interesting with varying depths.
Lessons and Opportunities
Creating this cutlery set helped me improve my Rhino 3D modeling skills by a ton. I also got to learn the process of sending a project to be 3D printed, which could really help me in the future when designing new 3D products.
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I’m glad I got to learn these skills because they help me grow as a designer, especially as a 3D designer. I’m always happy to learn new skills for creating products because creating tangible things is what I love doing best!
