The Utah Teapot, also known as the Newell Teapot, was one of the first digital 3D models in the world. It is a 3D computer model which has become a standard reference object in the computer graphics community, and was created in 1975 by early computer graphics researcher Martin Newell. With the advent of 3D printing users are able to materialize digital designs. While one might consider ceramic the obvious material for 3D printing the Utah Teapot, we have chosen instead to 3D print it out of actual tea. This means the Utah Tea Set, which includes tea cups also 3D printed out of tea, is doubly, characteristically self referential — meta — and then meta again. Of course, the teaspoons are also printed using tea as well and are exactly the volume of a single teaspoon (5 cubic centimeters).
Project Date: 2015
Project Team: Virginia San Fratello & Ronald Rael