For her fellowship project with MADWORKSHOP, Nhan-Nhi Lillian Nguyen combined her background in architecture with ceramics to develop her design practice in London at Central Saint Martins. The focus of her design practice explores the intersection between what is machine made and hand made through playful experiments and inquiries. Her final degree show exhibition showcased a series of eight porcelain vessels made by hand and ceramic 3D print technology.

The result of her research is the development of NNN (her initials), which Lily describes as a human printer orchestrating the use of technologies including a 3D ceramic printer, computer, handheld extruder, mixer, and the human hand. She inserts herself into the 3D printing process by weaving porcelain coils into the body of the vessel as it is being formed by the 3D printer. This intervention in an otherwise highly autonomous process creates opportunities for intentional disruption, structural change, and the introduction of wabi-sabi-esque imperfection. The process is a serendipity of error and a tension between precise planning and a relinquishment of control. Her celebration of error and humanity results in works of richly textured surfaces and unfamiliar volumes.