The Shapeways Blog: 3D Printing News & Innovation
Entries from April 2011
Friday, April 29. 2011
Friday Finds: 3D Printed Designs From the Shapeways Community
Theo Jansen's 3D Printed Strandbeests
Theo Jansen is a Dutch kinetic artist, since 1990 occupied with creating new forms of life. He is father to the "Animari" beach creatures, or "Strandbeests", made of PVC tubing, that walk the beach powered by the wind. As time progresses the Beests evolve, with the ultimate goal of living their lives on their own.
Now Theo Jansen's Strandbeests have found a way to multiply by injecting their digital DNA directly into the Shapeways system. From now on several small strandbeests are available from his shop . Next to being a great abstraction of the inspiring work of Theo Jansen, these strandbeests are also an example of what 3D printing is capable of. Right after birth from the 3D printer these models will work straight away and do NOT require any assembly.
Designing the Beests this way proved quite the challenge. They consist of at least 76 separate moving interlocking parts. Multiple prototypes were used to come to the first viable solution, "Animaris Geneticus Parvus" #5. But the evolution process continues with evolutions #6 with lightweight bone structure and #7 with pointy feet.
3D printing is very suitable for rapid design changes, and as time goes by the Beests will evolve and new types of DNA will be added to the store, while others are removed. Expect more evolutions and variations in the future, with possible variation in size, shape, material or means of propulsion.
Also worth mentioning, a big brother to these Strandbeests is the limited edition "Animaris Geneticus Parvus XL", which is only available from Theo's Dutch Gallery Akinci
Animaris Geneticus Parvus is a joint project of Theo Jansen and Dutch Designers Bo Jansen and Tim van Bentum.
Check out the models in Theo Jansen's Shop.
Thursday, April 28. 2011
Introducing Image Popper, a new way to easily 3D model and 3D print
Hello again! Today, I'm proud to announce two new developments in the way Shapeways enables your creativity: the remodeling of our creator page and a brand new creator to go with it!
First, our new creator page…Shapeways is constantly looking for new ways to help people who do not know how to 3D Model to design and create new things. We do this via our Creators and Co-Creation Platform. Over time, we have accumulated a lot of different creators and variations, and our Creator page has gotten a bit crowded. This week, we've cleaned it up a bit. Hopefully this will make it easier to use and understand.
Speaking of ways of helping you create, we are also happy to introduce our Image Popper! The concept is simple, upload a black and white JPG, or draw your own right on screen (currently the draw your own feature only works in Google Chrome). Then tell us how big you want it, how much you want to raise it, etc. and watch your design upload directly to your shop.
Got feedback? Let me know on the forum.
What can you make with this?
Read More »
Tuesday, April 26. 2011
Monday, April 25. 2011
4000 Items Sold from Woody's Minifig Customs Shop
Congratulations to Woody's Minifig Customs on reaching 4000 sales from his Shapeways shop.
Woody designs a range of Lego Mini-figurine accessories inspired by historical items from the late 17th and 18th century with nearly 500 items in his Shapeways store and he also offer to do custom items upon request via his Facebook page and check out some of his images on his Flickr page.
We are beginning to see more and more micro-businesses built upon Shapeways, using Shapeways to handle the financial transaction, production and distribution so that designers, artists, makers can concentrate on the fun stuff... Designing and making....
Let us know how we can help enable your business, what can we do to make it easier, what are we doing wrong, and if you have a business you are running off of the Shapeways site, let us know how your business is powered by Shapeways?
Friday, April 22. 2011
Friday Finds: 3D Printed Designs From the Shapeways Community
Now for one of my favorite parts of the week: a round up 3D printed goodness from our community. And remember you can always check out these community members' shops and the It Arrived forum too!
henryseq's steampunk style Knotted Cog:
vertigopolka's paper thin Implicit Surface Q in White Strong Flexible:
Magic's mathematically playful anti-dodecahedron:
Action_N's sweeping Swirl Ring:
Thursday, April 21. 2011
Introducing 3D Printing of new smooth, ultra detailed material
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| Frosted Ultra Detail vs. Frosted Detail | Frosted Ultra Detail painted | Frosted Ultra Detail vs. White Detail |
As you can see from the pinwheel photo above (the first picture on the left), Frosted Ultra Detail is a crisper, clearer material than Frosted Detail. Also, the thinner pinwheel walls survives printing in the Frosted Ultra Detail material, while the same walls breaks off in Frosted Detail wheel (the wheel on the right).
This is also an improvement over our current detail offerings. First, we will allow interlocking parts with this material, which will enable more complex and interesting designs. The material is also smoother, and less yellow than the current detail material (especially the Frosted Ultra Detail, see the comparison photo above). Lastly, because the support material is easier to clean, less parts will get rejected. In the past, hollow parts with tiny holes were very difficult to clean and would sometimes get rejected, in the Frosted Detail materials, the support material is melted out, simplifying the cleaning process, so upload those complex models and off to the printers they go!
We will be offering Frosted Detail materials on a trial basis for 8 weeks. If the community response is positive, we will keep this material permanent, so be sure to give us plenty of feedback on your experiences (both good and bad) with this and our other detail materials.
Read More »
Wednesday, April 20. 2011
Shapeways Community Earns $100,000
From the truly-amazing-department: you guys have earned over $100,000 with your Shapeways shops, counting from the moment Shapeways started back in 2008. That's true earnings, not just revenue. I think that deserves a round of applause! How about we aim for another $100,000 in just 6 months from now? 
(Picture: record shipment of 136 orders in one day, last month. From left to right: Egbert, Petra en Ramon)
Tuesday, April 19. 2011
Every Day Should Be Mother's Day
A little background on Mother's Day in the USA courtesy of our good friend wikipedia:
OK, so this year, perhaps forgo the empty sentiment of a printed card and go for a 3D printed gift instead...Anna Jarvis embarked upon a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday. She succeeded in making this nationally recognized in 1914. By the 1920s, Anna Jarvis had become soured by the commercialization of the holiday. She incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and was once arrested for disturbing the peace.
She and her sister Ellsinore spent their family inheritance campaigning against what the holiday had become. Both died in poverty. According to her New York Times obituary, Jarvis became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card. As she said,
A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.
—Anna Jarvis.
Melbourne Meetup April 28th : UPDATE
OK Melbourne, it's time to Meetup Shapeways style, now at Beer Deluxe...
After the success ot the recent Sydney Meetup now it is Melbourne's turn to get together and talk 3D printing in the warm glow of beer. Bring along your own 3D printed items, whether Shapeways, Makerbot, Rerap, whaterver, especially if you have any post processing tips you would like to share as we saw some amazing items in Sydney. Feel free to bring as many friends as you like and hopefully you can blow my beer budget 
Also I (Duann) will be in Melbourne all day on Thursday the 28th of May and I am available to give presentations to any schools, universities, TAFE or Hackerspaces. If you are interested, get in touch duann (at) shapeways (dot) com
I am looking forward to meeting you all and seeing what the 'Cultural Capital of Australia' has to offer.
thinking inside the square / Jes / http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Friday, April 15. 2011
Re-Think Education with Shapeways & HackThink
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Last Days To Enter ICFF Contest
We have updated, announced the judges and now time is running short to get your entries in to the Shapeways ICFF Design for 3D Printing Contest.
So far we have Over One Hundred Entries in the contest and more are pouring in by the second (ok, by the minute) so now is the time to get your entries in before 5PM April 17th EST....
Make sure you have your item tagged ICFF11 and that you model is public otherwise it will not show up in our selection gallery.
Items can use any material or combination of materials up to the value of $400 in 3D printed components, you can also have other components as part of the design.
Below is a gallery of just some of the entries so far.... Get your in now for your chance to WIN...
Read More »
Wednesday, April 13. 2011
Meet the Jury for the ICFF Contest
We are really excited to announce our panel of judges for the Shapeways 2011 ICFF Design for 3D Printing Contest.
We have managed to get a great range of experts to take a look at your designs to judge which is best suited to be 3D printed and shown at ICFF from the business of design, through interior styling to CAD commando, from left to right we have:
Suzanne LaBarre is a senior editor at Co. Design, the design news site of FastCompany.com
Gregory Han is managing editor of Apartment Therapy Unplggd, a site dedicated to the harmonious art of balancing technology with home decor. Gregory is also a regular contributor to Apartment Therapy as a house tour contributor/photographer, and worked as the Los Angeles Apartment Therapy managing editor from 2007-2010. He currently resides in Silver Lake with his partner, Emily, and their two naughty felines, Eames and Eero.
Josh Mings is a full-time engineer working in design of aircraft interiors. He writes at SolidSmack.com where he covers product development, design and related technology.
So now along with the amazing opportunity to have your design 3D printed and on display at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair your designs, even if you do not win will also be seen by some of the leading minds in design, another awesome opportunity that you get just by entering...
Time is running short with the contest closing 17th of April 5:00 PM EST 2011, upload your entries with the tag 'ICFF11' to be in the running to win.
Tuesday, April 12. 2011
Shapeways Meetup Sydney Recap
3D Printing in the Pub.
Also heard a cool story of two co-workers at a workplace of over 300 people who found each other because of the Shapeways packages that arrived via UPS to their respective desks.... The Shapeways Connection.....
Take a look at our Meetup page to see where we will be getting together next, or get in touch if you would like us to help you organize a meetup in your area. A big thanks to all of you who came to the Sydney Meetup, we will have to do it again soon.
Saturday, April 9. 2011
Silver price lowering for earrings & cufflinks
In response to your feedback, I am happy to announce that we will be eliminating extra start up costs for pairs of earrings and cufflinks.
We will no longer be charging $40 for each earring or cufflinks!
There is one flat fee for the first 1 cm3 (of $40). Afterwards, each further cubic centimeter will be $20/cc.
Please note though, this does only applies to natural pairings (like earrings and cufflinks), and this does not apply to earrings/cufflinks with more than 2 parts. We incur a lot of costs on a per part basis, hence the flat fee. However, we hear your pain and would like to help you design more beautiful things, so for earrings and cufflinks we'll make an exception.
I hope to see more beautiful things in silver soon! Remember to share your photos in the "It's Arrived" section of the forums.
Best,
Nancy
