PhD. project by Flemming Tvede Hansen and the Method of Branching Experiments

Ceramist Flemming Tvede Hansen  of the Danish School of Design has carried out a large number of experiments to examine the possibilities that lie in the interaction between contemporary digital 3D design and traditional ceramic form-giving, where form is partly determined by the material itself. These experiments formed the basis for his Ph.D. dissertation Material-driven 3D digital form-giving. Experimental use and integration of digital media in the field of ceramics, which he successfully defended at The Danish Design School in October 2010.

For those of you who are initiated in Blender and are interested in creating your own 3D printed jewelry Artur Tchoukanov a video tutorial on how to create a simple ring from a bitmap. Blender is a free open source 3D modeling and animation software, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. Download Blender and follow the tutorial to create your own ring.

And of course to keep up with the latest Blender info check out thew Blender Nation and Blender Guru blogs for more tips, tutorials and inspiration.. 

If there is any other CAD software you would like to see tutorials on how to prepare for 3D printing, please let us know.  In the meantime check out Cad Junkie and Lynda (Lynda for Blender) for more CAD tutorials.. Warning: Hours of your life may be lost following CAD tutorials, proceed with caution.

A big welcome to Derek, Dave and the rest of the team at Ponoko who have made the move into the third dimension by adding 3D printing to their current 2D laser cutting.

Realized in partnership with Cloudfab, Ponoko are offering a range of 3D printed materials from their US hub including white polyamide, UV curable acrylic resin, ZCorp, stainless steel and gold plated stainless steel. They add 3D printing to their existing options which includes laser cutting of a vast range of materials along with electronic components via Sparkfun.

It is exciting to see another voice emerge along with Shapeways to promote the huge potential of 3D printing to independent designers and 3D printed products to potential buyers.

Online sales typically pick up in the weeks leading up to Christmas with people searching for the perfect gift for family and friends, colleagues and clients.  Now is a great time to take a good look at your Shapeways Shop to ensure that it is presenting your items for sale in the best possible way.

Images: Ensure your items are well photographed in 450x324 or 700x519 format, either with a plain background or in context to represent scale and use.  If you do not have access to a decent camera get a friend with a camera to lend a hand, take a look at the photography tutorial for some pointers and please, please, please do not use your low resolution camera-phone, do not use a camera top flash, use a tripod instead....             

Clean up your shop: do not clutter up your shop with 'default renders' of unrealized products. If you have great photographs next to bad images it erodes the overall integrity of the look of your shop. Decisions to purchase are often made the moment an object is seen (everything after that is usually a process of self-justification), make the decision easier with a clear, consistent shop.

(Iso)Communication, tensional integrities and intensive connections through a peripheral park of Bologna is the fifth year's thesis of Vincenzo Reale from Bologna University, in which themes such as tensegrity, form-finding, material and structural properties of complex systems, parameterization of physical behaviors, interaction of surfaces and components with external force fields, rapid prototyping techniques were discussed, in the search of elegance through a perpetual dialectics of complexity and refinement.

Check out his thesis abstract and some beautiful images...

meshmixer is a free experimental 3D modeling tool for Windows designed to make it easy to compose a new 3D models from existing meshes. So if you don't have any CAD skills but would like to try tweaking an existing model downloaded from Shapeways, 3D Warehouse or Thingiverse, simply download meshmixer and start tweaking.  Of course you could also make a mash-up of a few of your own designs and see what kind of wild amalgamations you can come up with to 3D print.

Download meshmixer now and start mashing up your models....

I made the gallery above by adding a few of the recent models to my favorites and making a 3x4 widget with the code fav=USERNAME.  As far as rows go use this to adjust the frame size

cols/rows    width    height    if cols=1
1                168      176        height +12
2                320      320
3                474      464
4                628      608

Read on to see more examples of some of the Shapeways communities shops in widgetized...

If you want to sell your designs you must watch this presentation from the 2010 Blender Conference in Amsterdam by Andrew Price AKA Blender Guru.  It may be about being a digital artist, but the same rules apply to all independent designers whether it is CG, Jewelry, Product, Furniture, Graphics, or Needlecraft.

If 35 minutes is too much of your time (I listened while doing other menial tasks (not work related)) you can always read the article on his blog..

If you do not have time to watch or read, here at least is a summary of what you need to do to succeed. Step 2 could be replaced by having an exhibition, market stall, trade fair, Shapeways shop, PDF portfolio, press pack etc etc...

Thanks to Bart for the heads up.

Interactive Fabrication showcases projects exploring Interactive Fabrication: interfaces and devices that take real-time input to fabricate physical form.  They are Karl D.D. Willis, Cheng Xu & Kuan-Ju Wu collaborating with: Golan Levin, Mark D Gross, Juncong Lin, Jun Mitani & Takeo Igarashi.

We have been looking for ways to help the Shapeways community get their designs out into the wild and have got a few exciting projects on the boil.  One that we need you to help us test is the Shapeways Widget that allows you to embed your Shapeways shop into other sites using a HTML snippet.

This widget is still in the testing stage and we would really like to get your feedback on how it works, if you run into any problems and if you would like to see any more details or options. Also feel free to send us links of where you use the widget so we can get an idea of the context in which you use the widget.

I am always surprised by how much I learn whenever I catch even a snippet of a 3D modeling tutorial and cadjunkie's video's are easy to follow and understand for the beginner, with enough new information to be worthwhile even if you have thousands of hours experience with a CAD package. If you would like to delve deeper into the theory behind CAD modeling you can drown your self in some serious CAD geekery on Adam's site.

Thanks to SolidSmack for cadjunkie hit..