Faith manipulates her hand without sensors. Instead, as she happily demonstrated over and over after the bike ride, she moves her upper arm back and forth.
    That in turn opens and closes its blue and pink fingers — "my favorite colors," she noted with a smile — that she uses to grasp objects like the favored plush toy she brought with her.
    The oldest of three children, Faith had compartment syndrome when her position during childbirth cut off the flow of blood to her left forearm, irreparably damaging tissue, muscle and bone. After nine months of trying to save the limb, doctors determined they had to amputate just below the elbow.
    She had tried a couple more traditional — and more expensive — prosthetics over the years but found them bulky, heavy and hard to use.
    Her parents were working with the nonprofit group E-Nable to get her a 3-D-printed hand, but the technology is so new there's a waiting list, her mother said. Then she learned of what Build It Workspace could do from a friend whose son visited with his Scout troop. The small studio teaches people to use high-tech printers, provides access to them for projects and does its own commercial printing.
    Although the company, founded less than a year ago by mechanical engineer Mark Lengsfeld, has printed out everything from pumps for oil and gas companies to parts for unmanned aerial vehicles, this was the first hand Lengsfeld and his employees had built.
    So he used E-Nable's open-source technology and called in Cal State, Dominguez Hills' experts for guidance.
    When Faith quickly strapped on their new creation and headed out to ride Tuesday morning, as TV cameras captured the moment, Lengsfeld admitted he was nervous. After being up all night finishing the hand, he wanted to test it himself to be sure it worked.
    "But she did fine with it," he said, chuckling.
    She noted it did fine by her as well.
    "I didn't have to lean so much," she said of the difficulty of navigating and steering a bike with just one hand.
    Afterward, as more than a dozen reporters and photographers, as well as school and city officials, family friends and others, crowded into Build It's small studio, the little girl sat shyly in front of a huge poster reading "Hand It To Faith" that Lengsfeld had made for her.
    But when asked to demonstrate how she can use the hand to help with things like schoolwork, she got busy. She placed her new hand firmly on a piece of paper, holding it in place as she drew a picture.
    And just what did she draw? Her new hand, of course, complete with robot fingers in perfect detail.