Some believe innovation is available only through lightning bolts from the sky or muses that visit in the night.  Many times, however, experimentation, experience and a combination of existing solutions are what lead to new innovation. 

Six-year old Clara Conard, born in China with a congenital limb deficiency was adopted at a very early age by the Conard family in Minneola, 22 miles south of Dodge City in Southwest Kansas.  Clara’s limb deficiency hasn’t slowed her down much.  She’s active in gymnastics and all manner of other activities for a girl her age.  She puts on and removes her prosthesis with ease, as if it were a jacket or glove.  She wanted to learn to play the violin as does one of her older siblings so the family purchased a patented violin bow adapter to fit to the end of her prosthetic device.  There were two problems with this solution.  First, there was the weight of the prosthetic, making it tiring to practice for very long.  Second, the whole apparatus was so long it forced Clara to hold her arm in an unnatural position in trying to get the right sound out of the instrument. 

The family found a design for a 3D printed solution on the Internet and learned about Fab Lab ICC through some of our previous media coverage.  They came to Independence mid-November last year for a trial fitting of the new 3D printed adapter.  After shortening the overall length much more than anyone would have guessed, Clara was able to produce a better musical tone than ever before.  The only problem was the device slipping off of her short forearm.  The family went home and we vowed to come up with a better solution, perhaps something made from leather to fit to the arm but adapted to the 3D printed rod and bow adapter. 

Using the plastic version as a model, friend of Fab Lab ICC and part-time leather craftsman, Bobby Joe Paasch of Coffeyville, fabricated a custom leather apparatus that joins straps for Clara’s forearm and her upper arm with a hinge joint corresponding to her elbow.  Voilà, the device worked, giving Clara the flexibility to bend her elbow while keeping everything firmly attached to her arm. 

Many innovations do not result from lightning-bolt epiphanies or muses visiting us at night (although these things sometimes do happen), but rather they result from experience, experimentation and the combination of existing solutions and technologies.  This experience serves as a great example, combining new 3D printing technologies with age-old leather craft to provide an innovative solution for a little girl living in Southwest Kansas. 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu. Archive columns and podcasts at www.fablabicc.org.