3D Printed Art for the Visually Impaired

Recently a teacher from the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired contacted us after discovering a past project we had previously 3D printed Van Gogh’s Starry Night. (Link Here)

This project received a lot of recognition and went on to win a couple awards having demonstrated a unique application for the technology.

After seeing our project, Leslie, a teacher from the school, inquired if it would be possible that we do something similar for her students. She pondered if it would be possibly for the students to experience the art through touch.

We knew we wanted help so we took on the challenge and created three more of Van Gogh’s famous paintings. We took images of the paintings and ran them through a software to create a file suitable for 3D printing. The files were extruded to give depth making the lighter colors extruded further then the darker ones. The contrast in height allowed the students to feel the art allowing them to visualize the real painting.

Each 3D printed painting also has a nameplate at the bottom done with braille that read who the artist was, the year of the painting and the name of the painting.