Is this world really worth seeing clearly?

Six months ago, my seeing eye glasses were lost. Due to lack of funds, I have yet to go buy another pair. Because of my need for these glasses, I thought this was an appropriate project to embark on.

Although for some it may be simpler and more reasonable to just go out and buy a pair of glasses, it might even be simpler for me, but I dont feel like it would be more reasonable. I am printing these in 3D because I dont feel like I am creating anything useless, or without purpose. It doesnt seem destructive or wasteful, and will hopefully be a challenging and rewarding process.

Around 1000 AD, the first vision aid was invented, called a reading stone, which was a glass sphere that was laid on top of the material to be read that magnified the letters. Evidently, the first eye glasses were made in Italy in 1286.

“It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making eyeglasses, which make for good vision…And it is so short a time that this new art, never before extant, was discovered…I saw the one who first discovered and practiced it, and I talked to him.”  Ilardi, Vincent (2007), Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes, Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society.

My idea is to make frames similar to the pair pictured above. I want the frames to be strong, and to hardly look like theyve been 3D printed, (not stringy like the printers can sometimes do.) I am going to try and make that not happen, or happen less, by choosing a color like brown or black. Also it will just consist of how wide I design the frames on the computer.

153 million people (2% of the world’s population / 23% of the total number of those who are visually impaired) cannot see properly because they are short- or long-sighted – conditions that can easily be treated with a pair of prescription glasses. I happen to be long sighted, or near sighted. This affects me by making objects, signs, people, mostly everything thats far away very blurry. When I put my prescription glasses on, things become much less blurry and I am able to see far away things far much better.

This is a picture of the first known seeing eyeglasses. These were known as “bow spectacles” and were used from the first eye glasses on into the 1700′s. “Spectacles Gallery”, Museum, British Optical Association.

The amount of growth that glasses have seen throughout these hundreds of years has been astronomical. Going from tiny metal frames without even anything to hold them onto your face except your nose, to glasses with all different sizes and shapes, theres even glasses with computers in them now.

Beyond that, I am about to print in 3D a pair of glasses frames, which is insane if you think about the time lapse. Its very exiting and almost a bit frightening honestly to think about how advanced technology has become.

Without eyeglasses, or without the lenses, our world would be a much different place. It would be harder for some to make out any words or objects far away, but also thinking about magnifying glasses, telescopes, lab tools to see tiny molcules. All of these things would be much different in a world without bifocals.

I am excited to jump into my project and create something that will be very beneficial for me. It will be rewarding to create something that will help me in the long run, and that I can hang onto for awhile. It will also be rewarding to be able to wear something that I designed and had the opportunity to print in 3D.

“Rose had the sort of eyes that manage perfectly well with things close by, but entirely blur out things far away. Because of this even the brightest stars had only appeared as silvery smudges in the darkness. In all her life, Rose had never properly seen a star.
Tonight there was a sky full.
Rose looked up, and it was like walking into a dark room and someone switching on the universe.” 
― Hilary McKay, Indigo’s Star