Associate Professor of Art Brian Ferrell’s affiliation with Fallingwater began when he was in college with a summer job as a tour guide and has continued as a long-time instructor for the organization’s College Architecture Residencies.

Ferrell is now part of Fallingwater in their artist-in-residence program. He applied with the intention to develop a series of interior design pieces that use reclaimed wood from the property, and integrate that with sustainably produced 3D printed materials.

He successfully applied for a Creative Entrepreneur grant through the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies and the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts to help with the purchase of the large machine needed to prepare the logs to become usable lumber. The long-term project will require Ferrell to collect and dry the wood from the property before designing and creating the pieces, which will be displayed in the house at Fallingwater upon their completion.

The Fallingwater project isn’t Ferrell’s first or only work with 3D printing. As he was developing the 3D printing lab for Seton Hill in the Arts Center – which coincided with the pandemic shutdown – he sought out to develop partnerships or collaborate with businesses that focused on 3D printing.

A cold-call to 3D Pets Prosthetics led to an initial connection doing research on the challenge of how to make 3D printed molds to turn recycled plastic bags into components for animal wheelchair carts.

“Unfortunately, the process of 3D printing can be wasteful,” Ferrell said. “Even when buying corn-based plastics, a lot of plastic is still used.”

Ferrell started researching ways to recycle failed prints either by making filament, or developing molds to cast the used plastic. He worked on a lighting project with Reimagined Recycling, an organization that upcycles used plastics and his initial work with 3D Pets was centered on recycling their failed prints.

“The HDPE (#5) plastic is very malleable but becomes very hard when it cools, so I created a printed press mold and started making various wheelchair components from used grocery bags,” Ferrell said. “We were also experimenting with casting the components in aluminum from recycled cart parts.

Last summer, 3D Pets asked Brian to tackle a new challenge: designing an elbow for the dog prosthetic so that the artificial limb won’t be in the way when the dog lies down.

The design challenge didn’t end there: the elbow would have to snap back up when the dog stands and withstand the dog running without buckling. After a number of prototypes, Ferrell successfully created the first jointed animal prosthetic for dogs. A fully working elbow was first tested on Trip, the large Rottweiler who serves as 3D Pets’ mascot, in July and the dog has continued to put it through further tests before production begins. Once given the go ahead, Ferrell will get to work fulfilling 50 orders for the large dog elbow prosthetics. 

@3d.pets Our largest 3D printed folding elbow!!! 🐾 #dogsoftiktok #greatdane #3dprinting #3dprosthetics #animalprosthetics #vetmed #surprisepup ♬ original sound - ar1esluver

Since Trip’s test run, Ferrell has designed and printed five additional elbows that were tested on various dogs over the summer, occasionally driving out to 3D Pets site in New Jersey to see them in action. He has since continued his work with smaller versions for various sized dogs with different strengths of springs. The elbows for smaller dogs entered testing this fall.

Beyond the word of pet prosthetics, Ferrell is expanding his medical 3D printing to collaborate with another course on Seton Hill’s campus. During the Fall 2024 semester, Ferrell and Assistant Professor of Biology Donna Haworth-Ward have been working on creating a relationship between his 3D Printing course and her Innovation in Health Science class. The pair hope to pair students up beginning next academic year so that a student in the Health Science class can develop an idea for a medical device that a student in Ferrell’s class can bring to life in the form of a 3D printed model.

The early results of the collaboration are positive: Ferrell’s students were able to print a model of a proposed sensor that would predict the onset of migraines.

“I am extremely excited for this collaboration to grow and flourish as it will not only provide my students with a concrete model of what they have proposed, but it will also serve to magnify the relationship between art and science that is too commonly overlooked,” Haworth-Ward said. “I truly believe that this pairing will provide a means for our students to see each subject in a new light and show the importance of art and science to one another.”