milwaukee magazine

Our work with Shea, Karuna, Hayley, and Evan was included in the Health issue of Milwaukee Magazine.

hayley: highland fashion week ambassador

Hayley is getting so big! She is the new ambassador for the Highland Fashion week. So awesome!

hayley: royal institution christmas lectures

Hayley shows her pink hand at 23:12.

year in review...

hayley

David posted these photos of Hayley getting ready for her interview for the BBC royal institute Christmas lectures in London recently. What a cutie!

hayley

Hayley Fraser and her Family overtook the BBC media last week. The BBC wrote a couple articles, one with video shown above and one on the building of the hands. It was really awesome to see Hayley using her hand and seeing her on her scooter and around the house. David and Zania had sent videos and pictures when I first sent the hands, but I hadn't seen anything from them recently. Honestly, I have just been too busy with other hand requests, school, exhibitions, and conferences and I feel bad that I have not been able to follow up. Regardless, I was so stoked to see the lovely pictures of their family and to hear the story in their own words. David and Zania shared so many stories with me on Facebook this past week including a beautiful morning show segment with Hayley. I think the word on 3D printed hands is traveling fast as a result of the BBC pieces. I received a few requests for hands from Europe this weekend and things are ramping up for the e-NABLE group as well. I think membership just took a major rise, so the word is officially out. I just keep thinking that there are so many more people effected by limb differences than I originally realized. I just wonder why nothing has been done in the past specifically for people who fit this description? 

I sent photos of Kaivahn and John K for the BBC follow up article and so I'm happy to see them featured prominently in the article as they did the assembly of Hayley's second hand. I know Kaivahn wants to continue this kind of volunteer work, so hopefully this will further show him what is possible when you give some time and abilities to things that might benefit others in some small way.

hayley's charity night

As I was creating hands for Hayley, her parents mentioned that they were planning a fundraising event to raise money for other children to be able to receive hands from the DCRL. Of course I thought this would be idea and kind thing to do, but little did I know how serious David and Zania were about making this event happen. After shipping one hand to Hayley, I was lucky enough to receive some posters and postcards advertising the event that would take place on June 20th (we hung them in the lab on our "wall of fame"). Again, I did not expect anything major, as honestly, we have made all of the hands thus far free of charge. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and it really hasn't been necessary for us to charge up to this point. We find ways of covering our cost of materials and our time isn't really a factor as I see it as an opportunity to learn and to help. 

Well Hayley's Charity Night came and went and then I received word from David via Facebook that the night had been a great success. This past week, I received an email from David Fraser saying that he and his wife Zania had raised £2073 for the DCRL to provided hands for children in need. I was simply blown away by the generosity of David, Zania, and their family and friends. I wrote the following message to David and Zania and I think it sums up my thoughts on the generosity of the people involved and the experiences I have gained from working on created 3D printed hands. Feel free to read if you find yourself interested in my thoughts on the subject and I encourage you all to go out and do something kind for someone else. You never know how it might impact someone's life or even change your own life for the better: 

Good Morning, David and Zania,

I am simply blown away by your generosity to organize, advertise, and put on such an event. I knew when you talked about this event that this would be a great way for people to show support for Hayley, but I was not at all expecting the financial outcome of this at all. I am simply speechless and I really don't have the words to explain how amazed and grateful I am for your show of support. I wish there was something that I could do to demonstrate how thankful I am. I would, however, like to share how this will impact us by sharing some information with you.

When this all started (when I first began working with Shea and her family during this past Christmas), I thought making a hand for Shea would be a great way for me to “give back” to someone in my community by using my abilities. Little did I know how this would change my outlook on life and even the direction of the work that I am doing at my institution. With each child we help, I am filled with satisfaction that we are doing something that truly matters and makes a difference. When I created the DCRL two years ago, I envisioned it as a place where students at our University could come to learn new information about 3Dimensional making and new technologies, and that this learning experience would broaden their horizons and make them marketable in the job market. I hoped that we would be able to design objects that “made a difference” in people’s lives, but never did I think that we would have the opportunity to connect directly with the individuals and their families. I have truly been blessed and my life has been enriched by meeting all of these kind and wonderful people. Several people have asked me if this type of work is “sustainable” and I have had critics tell me that I’m crazy if I think I can make a large impact by helping one child at a time. This work has made me realize that the world is rapidly changing and that current economic and information systems are changing along with the development of technology. The generosity of your family and friends is proof that if each person in this world were to give just a little, that in some small way we all would be able to gain perspective and the impact would be HUGE.

Up until this point I have funded most of the hands through coursework in the DCRL or on my own as the material cost is minimal and my time is free if I am doing something that I love and am inspired by. What you have done by raising this money has assured us that we can buy more supplies such as filament, velcro, hardware, cords, and padding to assist more children and the development of new designs can continue. Please feel free to share my message with anyone who made this possible as I want to make sure that everyone knows how grateful I am for their generosity and how their small act of kindness can have an impact in the lives of others.

As a side note, yesterday my colleague Adream Blair and I just helped a four year old girl, named Bella. I hope these pictures bring you and your friends the same joy that is brings us and I hope the pictures remind everyone of the impact that they are making.

Again, David and Zania, I cannot thank you enough. Please tell Hayley to keep practicing with her hand. Also let her know that we will keep developing designs and hopefully we can get some new designs to her to try in the near future. We would welcome any feedback or ideas on things that Hayley would like to see improved as she gets more use out of the hands.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Frankie

hayley: "thank you for my hand"

David sent these videos today. It seems Hayley's second hand made it safely to Inverness. Hayley is tearing it up with the use of this new hand; she's doing great for having just received this new hand. I informed David that he may need to "speed-up" the thumb a bit to time Hayley's grip a bit better. Right now the thumb is a little slower due to cable tension, but I think he may be able to fix this with a quick adjustment on the hex pin tensioner. Hayley is the same age as my daughter, Maya, so these videos connect with my family in a special way. I just about melted when Hayley says "thank you for my hand". Thank you to Hayley, David, and Zania for sharing these videos and for helping us to learn more about ways to improve what we're doing.

I would also like pass along a special thank you to UWM DCRL SURF and Art and Design students, Kaivahn Sarkaratpour and John Koerner, for helping me to complete Hayley's second hand. After I printed the parts they scrambled to complete their first hand build as I walked them through the processes of assembly, stringing, and final finish. It was a crash course, but they managed everything well. In addition, my wife Jill is a big part of this work because without her nothing would make it to the post. So in keeping with Hayley's beautiful message to all of you who made the moments above possible:

"thank you"

hayley's first hand: received

Hayley received her first hand yesterday. She should get her back-up/ "hand to grow into" sometime today. It looks like she's doing really well. Her father, David, sent this video to me yesterday and it made my day.

hayley's hand/ beast re-model

I've been busy making a hand for a young girl, named Hayley, from Inverness, Scotland. For her hand I decided to take the Beast palm and design it from the ground up. I had some issues previously with the old stl files and it was really good to just be able to start with a clean model that I could modify as I see fit and then create stl files from it rather than trying to piece or patch things together from the stl. This will allow me to release the original files as well in case someone wants to work with the separate solids rather than the stl files. I also decided to fit the Talon fingers to this palm. I know this creates just another hybrid, but a really wanted to be able to use the printed pins for the joints to save on hardware. The palm differs from Jorge's design in that is has no venting holes and I smoothed the outside of the hand to remove the undulations. I also thickened and lengthened the thumb proximal "stop" as I had one of these break on Karuna's hand (which was scaled quite small to his size). I just printed a small test pieces for the palm and fingers and everything seems like it fits well. I have a bit more testing and fiddling to do and then I'll be ready to release the files to anyone who might be interested. It's difficult to make hands for people in need and get them out to them in time, and still develop ideas that I have. I feel like I have to develop on each hand that I make to be able to work through ideas and make adjustments, but this delays the timeframe of receiving a hand. So sorry for the delay Hayley.

In the mean time, I'll finish up Hayley's hand and then get started on Weston's hand.