Charon's Toll: A Crowdsourced Passage

Project Complete!
The install at Love Burn went well and Charon was installed Wednesday the 12th and taken down Monday the 17th and packed back into the crate. It's made its way back north and will be set up again at a more permanent location in in the Baltimore area to be announced in the near future. Until then, please enjoy these build photos and videos of the sculpture from the shore of Virginia Key.

Here is a google photos album of all the pictures and videos of the build and install:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Xxpm3f2AUVnaEYQA7

PXL_20250214_053318782.NIGHT.jpg 1.02 MB

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We are excited to announce the latest WeTheBuilders project: Charon, the ferryman of Greek mythology, sculpted by Ryan Kittleson. This unique collaborative sculpture will be unveiled at Loveburn 2025, in Miami in February.

About the Sculpture

The sculpture depicts Charon, the mythological ferryman who transports souls across the river Styx. In homage to this myth, participants are encouraged to place a coin inside their 3D-printed blocks to symbolize the payment for safe passage. Coins can be actual currency, foreign coins, tokens, maker coins, arcade tokens, or any creative equivalent. To embed a coin, pause your printer during the print and drop it into the block.

Charon himself will be constructed from colorless translucent 3D-printed plastic and lit up internally.
His abdomen contains a trefoil knot symbolizing infinity, the endless wandering of souls. This will be lit up with dancing LEDs
The boat parts will be made using tan, brown, black, or very dark green filament.
We'll be using clear PVC pipes as additional internal structural support for this project.
Parts for this project are about 20% larger in size than previous projects. We've noticed printers have gotten larger over the years and we are experimenting with larger blocks this time.
We're going to use 1/4" diameter dowels to help create a stronger connection this time. You'll see holes for these on internal faces.
If you want and the part is large enough, include a coin inside the blocks you send in.
We'll be adding a real tattered cloth cloak to the 3D printed sculpture after it's constructed.

Timeline

To ensure the sculpture’s timely completion, we are releasing parts in sections so the parts most crucial for the difficult phase of the build arrive sooner:

Lower Half: These parts will be available first. We aim to receive all lower-half parts by January 9th.
Upper Half: These parts will be released after all lower parts are accounted for.
Boat Parts: These will remain available throughout the project until we have them all.

The boat will be made of about 100 darker pieces. This will be from a variety of dark colors, adding to the effect of it looking as if it's been patched together from different pieces of wood for thousands of years

These are the 70 parts that make up "upper"

The lower portion will be the trickiest part of the build and is about 85 pieces

Closeup of Charon's face with mesh edge lines turned on. The inside of his head is hollow with openings in the eyes so a glowing effect can show through them

Charon's face and upper body. Ryan Kittleson sculpted this model using zBrush.

This trefoil knot will be lit with LED neon in the trench and programmed to play various animations

We used Luban to split the sculpture in to pieces

The sculpture will stand 5 feet tall, 4 feet deep and about 2.5 feet wide. We'll be shipping it down to Florida in sections and then reassembling it down there on site.

Inside Charon we have voids modeled to accept PVC pipes for added stability. These pipes are clear and hollow so we can feed LEDs inside them

We'll light the head and staff and trefoil knot, as well as some arms/legs.

. The upper and lower sections of Charon will be printed in clear translucent plastic so we can make some cool LED visualizations

The boat will be darker colors to represent the wood

The Charon parts and the parts of his oar will be clear

There are many sections of the build which are skinny and cantilevered, but we'll be installing PVC pipes inside to help with structural support.

At Loveburn we hope to be able to set up the installation near the lagoon at the water's edge.

closeup of Charon's left arm and rib area

Boat parts in varying colors of brown, tan, black, and dark green will make for a tattered look of the boat's hull.

Deadlines for part submissions:

Lower parts: Received in Baltimore by January 8th at the latest (earlier is better.)
Upper and boat parts: Received in Baltimore by January 22rd at the latest (earlier is better.)

The final sculpture will be built, crated, and ready to leave for Love Burn by February 8th. The sooner we get the parts, the more time we'll have to glue them together and install electronics.

How to Participate

Download a 3D-printable file for this project here at WeTheBuilders.com
Print the part assigned to you using the specified materials and colors
(Optional) Embed a coin in your block as a tribute to the myth.
Label your part with it's XYZ coordinates.
Repeat to as many times as you'd like.
Ship your completed parts to our team in Baltimore. We're using two addresses to split up the time consuming check-in process.

Thanks so much for your help! These projects are a ton of work and we wouldn't be able to do it without you. Really. Thanks for participating in this build, and tell your friends!