If you wanted to get an idea of the level of quality we can now achieve with Shapeways' 3D printed sterling silver, take a look at Nervous System's Vessel Pendant.

It is a fantastic example of the quality of polishing we can now achieve with the silver process so you can get absolute professional results from the Shapeways service. Please be sure to share your items when they arrive, we LOVE to see what you make.. 

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/

Design Darlings Droog Enter the World of Mass Customization and 3D Printing.

During the Salone del Mobile in Milan in 2011, Droog will present furniture and accessories designed for download by EventArchitectuur and Minale-Maeda, including CNC cut tables, cupboards, desks, side tables, shelves, couches and 3D printed electrical outlets, flowers and charms. Droog will also present digital design tools that allow ordinary computer users to easily make functional design decisions, automatically generating blueprints for local execution in various materials. The tools also enable communication between designer and customer, streamlining and lowering the cost of a custom design process. The presented products have been customized by Droog for its collection.

At this occasion Droog will present the outcome of its Design for download investigation, announcing the coming of the first platform for downloadable design, which will feature curated and open content, easy-to-use parametric design tools and a network of local low- and high-tech manufacturers. The launch of this platform, featuring various brands and institutions alongside Droog, will occur later this year. The platform will not only include products, but also architecture, home accessories, fashion, food, wearables, inventions and more.

Wow, so obviously Droog have been taking note of some of the awesome designs that are emerging from sites such as Shapeways and Ponoko, the huge potential of customization and personalization of product designs, that this is where the cutting edge of design currently resides, with bespoke, personalized products.. Awesome. This adds greater validity to what we the Shapeways community already know.  It will be interesting to see the level of customization that will be possible with their 'configurators' or whether the downloaded files will be completely open once purchased.  Will the purchased digital files then show up for Download on Shapeways or Thingiverse? Will they have an option to share and show off co-created designs or will it be a fully closed, curated eco-system?

I am sure we will see much debate on the Droog angle, but in the meantime, get your entries in to the ICFF contest and lets show them how amazing truly open design can be

via @michiel_ontwerp

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.

Terrifying works by Beijing painter Xia Xiaowan makes 3D printing look tame.

Found via Don't Panic

But seriously, panic.

The Kinect and the 3D printer seem poised to be the perfect match in realizing the dream of making replications of real life objects for repair, replacement, amusement and art.  A recent project by blablabLAB entitled Be Your Own Souvenir took the art route in a very public application. I asked the collective a few questions about the project, process and future experiments.

First tell us a little about the project?
This project was inspired by our daily life in Barcelona, a city flooded by tourists and everything that tourism implies. This fact, the rising prices, the feeling-abroad-at-home, the topic-culture, the not-productive disappearing places... produces a weird and contradictory sensation on us: actually we are “guiris” (tourists) in La Rambla.
Talking about the city and the people is what its all about.

 

How was the reaction from the public?

The public at the beginning seemed shy, not understanding what was happening, but after a few minutes viewing somebody performing and seeing the reward for it, the result in print, many wanted to try. We ended up with a long queue and unfortunately we couldn’t attend everyone, since the resolution-performance ratio is very different in the two systems: the Rapman prints way slower (10 minutes) than the Kinects scan real fast (real time), which is a pity, because the Rapman can plot real accurate model, while the real time scanning wasn’t mandatory for this specific project.

What a month March was for the Shapeways community.

We started the month with an invite to join us at Makerfaire UK in Newcastle, which turned out to be a great success with Ralph and Bart joined by community members Euphy and Stop4Stuff who had an awesome time talking until their throats were hoarse about 3D printed coolness.

We launched the ICFF contest to give you the opportunity to have your 3D printed designs on show in NYC, already the contest is hotting up with some great entries, make sure you get yours in soon.

Shapeways updated it's dyed strong and flexible range to include Dark Grey and Indigo to Winter Red and Night Black.

We made it possible for you to log in to Shapeways with Facebook and Twitter making it easier for new users to sign up and purchase your designs, Like your items and tweet the love.

The Stainless Steel Design Rules were given a tweak to ensure that there is greater consistency and reliability with the stainless steel process.

SILVER made a long awaited comeback after months of being sorely missed with a better pricing model for you, tell us what you think and show us your stuff...