Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? Where are you located?

Hello and Hola! Pixil 3D is a design studio in West Palm Beach, Florida started by myself Noe Ruiz and my brother, Pedro Ruiz. Our parents are from Southern Mexico and migrated to the the United States in search of work during the early 70's. They actually meet at work while picking tomatoes from the fields of South Florida! We're first-generation Mexican Americans and we grew up influenced by cartoons, visual effects and videos games. We're both creative artists with a strong background in graphic design, video production, animation, and web design. We've worked on serval video projects as an agency, and self-published a productivity iPad app. We strive to make amazing quality products and we're passionate about design, technology, the maker culture, and of course 3D Printing! 

Shapeways is proud to annouce that we are sponsoring a residency program jointly hosted by Eyebeam and Public Knowledge.

The purpose of the Public Knowledge/Eyebeam Artist Residency is to make policy issues more engaging by creating a new work that raises awareness of an issue with the wider public, and compels people to investigate the issue further.  

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? Where are you located?

Our label is formed by a female goldsmith and a male architect. A perfect combination for modern jewelry and an exhaustless fountain of inspiration. Our headquarters are located close to Frankfurt in Germany.

We started something new last week: Maker Materials, starting with the new Elasto Plastic. These Maker Materials give us a better opportunity to learn from you! To a regular person Elasto Plastic may look dull and useless, but to our creative community, the possibilites are endless.

Michael Mullers Snake ring, with black patina 

You probably don't have your own Elasto yet, but we want to know your favorite post production techniques on any material. Share your tips for a chance to win a $25 voucher. Head to the forums for more details... This weeks contest has been extended to EOD Wednesday! (Midnight US Eastern Standard time)

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? Where are you located?

I'm a soon-to-be student of Interactive Multimedia Design at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. I have a day job (a meat clerk at a grocery store), but aim to make my living using 3D printing, both through Shapeways and at-home printers.

Today, we're really excited to announce our new Custom Ring Creator app, which allows anyone to make their own ring in minutes. You can personalize existing ring templates as well as create and customize a completely unique design of your own. It's easy to change the pattern, size, height and even add engraving. For all the illustrators out there who want to hold their drawings in their hands, now's your chance. Just upload your jpeg and wrap it around the ring! To get you started, some members of our community have already created some great example patterns.

Built on top of our new API, the app is pretty intuitive, but for anyone interested in the specs, here's whats possible...

• Customize existing template patterns or create and upload your own pattern with a jpg image
• Adjust ring measurements such as size, height, background, and thickness with easy to use sliders
• Size = Slider that uses US jewelers sizes in a range of 4-14 to pick the diameter of the ring. (Find your US ring size here)
• Height = "Width" of the ring
• Background = "Thickness” of the ring band (if applied behind the pattern)
• Thickness = "Thickness" of the pattern, or how high the pattern will sit off the band
• Add borders to the ring by adjusting top and bottom border sliders
• Engrave rings with a solid background with your custom text
• Choose a material that fits your budget including sterling silver
• Check your ring for printability instantaneously through our printability visualization tool

Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments!

When we designed the Leverage i5, we had 3D printing in mind. We specifically made the thickness of the backplate to match the tolerances of popular 3D printing materials. We wanted anybody to be able to design and print backplates for our Leverage i5 case. So here we are, releasing 3D fies of our backplates free of charge. Anyone may share, modify and make commercial use of the work, all we ask is that you drop a link in your file description to our site at: http://www.graftconcepts.com. That means anybody can create a backplate that fits on our Leverage i5 case. We are really excited with this experiment and can’t wait to see what innovative ideas people come up with!

This weeks Designer Spotlight focuses on a husband and wife team, running MONOCIRCUS, an art and design lab and an online store.  

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? Where are you located?

My name is Kazunori Takeishi and I am Japanese and an architect, while my wife, Lim Shing Ee (Shing), is Singaporean and an artist. We turned a room in our apartment in Fukuoka, Japan, into a studio/office space where we work practically round the clock, while parenting two boys.

Hi Shapies!

I'm Savannah, the latest addition to the Shapeways Marketing team. I'll be splitting my time here between social media management and Shop Owner education.

I'm honored to be working with such a talented community of designers, Shop Owners and customers, so much so in fact, that I'm plotting the first Shapeways Roadtrip across America! 

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you?

I am an Attorney by day, 3D designer by night, living in Waterbury, Connecticut. I am 52 years old, and have had an interest in computers and emerging technology since the 80's. I have been investigating 3D design and printing for about 5 months now.

Have fun!

-Mike