With all the problems in todays oceans of icebergs melting, over fishing, and coral dying, I know I can help in some way! And the biggest problem if I was a fish is not having a home after a long day in the water, so I am building a good home in the coral reef that can hopefully make a good impact on the Red Sea in Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab, Egypt.

I took many pictures of my head and stitched them into a 3D model using photogrammetry with a program called Meshroom.

I first started with color 3D printing on a Projet 660 Pro printer. This uses an ink color liquid along with a binder that is painted on fine plaster to give a high detailed color print to a 3D object. It is then covered in super glue to give it strength.

The next head was made in an additive manufacturing method that is very popular called Fused Deposition Modeling. I used Polylactic Acid (PLA) and printed it on my Prusa MK3 printer.

The third head was made in a subtractive mold of PLA and silicone. This was a 2 part silicone resin and took 24 hours to cure.

The metal head was made with casting molten aluminum in a sand cast and then letting it harden. The sprue was then removed and the heads were polished.

And the final head was made with clay and ceramics. I used terracotta and earthenware slip clay, but first made a plaster mold of my head. After letting the plaster dry for a week, I then could pour the liquid clay into the plaster mold, this is called slip casting. After about 40 minutes the clay is poured out and we have the high detailed version of our part made with a hollow shell of clay. I added many different types of glaze and paint to the heads and then fired them in the kiln.

We then travelled to Sharm El-Sheikh and Dahab in Egypt, beautiful cities along the Red Sea. Our scuba instructor brought us to some amazing dive sites and we spent a week doing 3 dives a day. The water was warm and the coral reefs are some of the best in the world. Hopefully my ceramic heads will become a coral reef sanctuary for many fish and marine life.

0:00 Coral Reef Housing Crisis
0:54 Photogrammetry
1:16 Color 3D Printing
2:10 FDM Printing
3:23 Silicone
4:10 Aluminum
6:37 Slip Casting Ceramics
9:08 Scuba Diving in Egypt!
16:19 Did It Work?