Mark Suppes is working to realize cheap clean abundant energy through an open source Bussard fusion reactor (also known as the Polywell), at home, in Brooklyn, with a little help from the magic of 3D printing. He is documenting his project on his site Prometheus Fusion Project where he goes through the step by step details as well as the history of the project. Mark is using both Makerbot to fabricate components at home and Shapeways to 3D print the ceramic and stainless steel parts to help realize the project.

Check out this super interesting video of Mark presenting his project at the LIFT conference in Geneva, he mentions 3D printing at around 10 minutes and Shapeways at around 16 minutes in but the whole video is worth watching...

Oh, and he has no formal training in science.. Yeah..

The Shapeways Skillshare School is hosting a couple of classes in NYC next week, the first 3D-Print Anything: Jewelry Rings & Earrings for Beginners taught by Kevin Wei starting on Monday June 4th and a second class Intro to Design for 3D Printing with Shapeways hosted by Duann Scott on Wednesday June 6th. The proceeds from the Wednesday class will go to Pencils of Promise to help educate children around the world.

If you or a friend want to get started but do not know where to start, these classes are a great intro.  If you want to try something a bit more advanced take a look at the Shapeways Skillshare School or let us know what you would like to learn... 

The Feed is the easiest way to keep abreast of the latest 3D printed products on Shapeways. On The Feed you can see the latest public photos uploaded along with when a public model sells, when anybody favorites or shares a design or adds it to their favorites. It is a great way to see what is happening, what is popular and is a real buzz when you see someone has given one of your designs some love.

We have also made the feed available as an RSS feed to make it even easier to keep an eye on what is happening on the the Shapeways site.

feed://www.shapeways.com/feed/rss

The more you add images, favorite yours and other's designs and share them on twitter, facebook and Pinterest the more those items will be featured on the feed... 

Check out this video by Walter Dealon of him 3D modeling a Fox Keychain to be 3D printed... Making it look easy..

Portabee is the latest 3D printer to hit the ever growing market of desktop 3D printers.  This one is a little different in that it is very small and portable, designed to fold down into a laptop bag.  Currently taking pre-orders for the unassembled kit for only $480 they also plan to offer an assembled, tested version in the future.

The Portabee has a build area of 120x120x120mm, uses 3mm PLA and ABS filament with a 0.5mm extruder nozzle and is available in 7 color options.

via 3ders.org

Father's Day is fast approaching so we thought we would get in some early 3D printing for father's day gifts...

The Wrap - cable winder for Euro iPhone charger

Letter M Pendant

TriStand - iPhone Case with 3 Built In Stands

Mini vase for mum ;) 

We are getting an increasing amount of requests from journalists for high resolution photographs of 3D Printed products.  We do have a catalogue from a number of designers but we need more, more, MORE......

A great way to share your high resolution photographs is to upload them to Flickr, it makes it easy for us and journalists to access images in web and print resolution really quickly.

If you tag you photos with Shapeways we can quickly find photos of your 3D prints and share them with journalists. If you also ad a link to your Shapeways product page it will help people to find your product if they stumble across it in Flickr. We will always credit product and designer to get you as much exposure as possible.

Check out the photography tutorial, take some great photographs, share them on Flickr with the Shapeways tag and we will do our best to get them in front of journalists next time they ask...  

Makie is a customizable 10" action doll 3D printed on demand. Currently in open alpha Makie has an online interface to customize your doll, male or female with hair, brows, eyes, nose, mouth ears and shape options.  This offer fairly deep customization to really give your doll serious personality.  Once you have customized the face it will be 3D printed and dressed in the clothes of your choice.. No 3D printed fabrics, yet.

Congrats to Alice Taylor and team for creating a really interesting interface that sets the bar high for those to follow.

No need for a fancy GoPro camera when you can mount your iPhone to your skateboard to record action videos. The Instructable for this project does not really go into any detail of how to design your own but serves as inspiration of what is possible with perhaps a more durable material like our Nylon with a Elasto Plastic shock absorber and Stainless Steel mounts...

New York celebrated Design this week with ICFF and a numerous satellite shows and events around the city.  Shapeways participated in Model Citizens NYC where with the help of Chris Hardy, Gilbert13, TheFutureFuture, Marius Watz, Colleen Jordan and GothamSmith to share what 3D Printing has to offer to int the world of art, design, and jewelry. 

Check out some of the photos from the Shapeways booth and others at the event.

Check out this video of the Shapeways booth at Maker Faire 2012 bringing 3D Printing to the mass of makers.  Footage courtesy of Shapeways superstar Lincoln Kamm who helped us out at the Shapeways booth.

In Search Of... is the latest work by Brooklyn based artist Matthew Day Jackson at the Hauge's GEM Museum.  The work has a tessellated digital aesthetic like a low poly devolution of form.

Drawing from aspects of American manufactured history, it's myths, the American Dream and those inherent failures: Jackson uses references from the past to frame undercurrents that steer present cultural, scientific and technological trajectories. 

For bonus points check out the freaky video with similar skulls in the background...

Dock your iPod Nano 6G and give it a spot on your desk, cabinet or nightstand.

The Nano Dock holds, syncs and charges your iPod Nano to prepare it for your next musical journey. Nano dock also transforms your Nano to an elegant table clock. See the time at your work desk or use it in the kitchen to perfect cook your egg with the Nano's build in timer function.

The Nano dock makes use of your existing Apple Dock Connector to USB Cable. Simply snap it in and pull the cable through the back. The Nano dock is perfectly engineered to hold the latest two generations of original Apple charging cables.

The Nano dock is designed for the latest generation iPod Nano 6G, but may work with older iPod models as well.

It's time to elegantly dock your Apple iPod Nano.