Friday Finds: The 3D Printed Stainless Steel Edition

To celebrate the last Friday Finds of 2012 and our latest End of Year Steel! Get 20% Off 3D Printed Stainless Steels through Dec 30th this week we are featuring 3D printed products from the Shapeways gallery in Stainless Steel finishes.

FabGeo Pendant No1

Design by GAD

Bio Pendant

Design by BA.tech

Me Gusta Coin

Design by chosetec

500W SubWoofer Ring

Design by GAD

Nimyade

Design by Allochtoon

10 Most Viewed 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways

Following on from the previous post where we looked at The 10 Most Favorited 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways which reflects the love given to products from within the Shapeways community, this time we are going to look at the 10 Most Viewed 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways. This one was a VERY close race and you will see some products that you have already seen in the previous list of the 10 most favorited 3D printed products.

Again, starting at number 10 and working our way down the 3D printed products with the most views according to Google Analytics.

Super Mario Mobius Strip Design by joabaldwin

GLaDOS ring Design by QUATRO

A Little Sad Keanu Reeves Design by neuralfirings

The 10 Most Favorited 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways

2012 has been a massive year for 3D printing and the Shapeways community. We have seen many of your products go viral and get a lot of love from the internet. Following are the 10 most favorited 3D printed products of 2012. This does not mean they are the most sold or viewed items, simply the products that have been given the most love from the Shapeways community, either by being favorited, or added to a wishlist. What was your favorite 3D printed product of 2012? Did it make the list?

Here they are starting at number 10.

The Nocturnal Watch by Whystler

The GLaDOS ring by QUATRO

Propeller Propulsion for Theo Jansen's Strandbeest

Another 3D Printed Puzzle to Twist Your Mind: The Cheese Block

Twisty puzzle superstar Oskar van Deventer has done it again with the 3D printed Cheese Block puzzle. A deceptively simple concept that quickly starts to look harder and harder to solve. Oskar has been designing 3D printed twisty puzzles since 1978 including the Over the Top Cube which is now in the Guinness Book of records as the highest order Rubik's cube. Order 3D-printed do-it-yourself puzzle kits from Shapeways or contact Oskar directly if you want to buy a fully dyed, assembled and stickered puzzle.

The Value of a Custom Made Gift is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts

There is little more rewarding then giving a loved one something that you have made especially for them. The value of the item far exceeds the sum of it's parts, as the act of making embeds meaning into the object far beyond a mass produced item, or a unique item you may have chosen from as artist or craftsperson. Your participation in the item adds a level of depth to the story and meaning behind the gift, that simply cannot been bought. The item becomes priceless, not in a Mastercard advertisement kind of way, but the item is embedded with genuine meaning.

Designing a gift using on demand 3D printing with Shapeways may not mean you are hand forging every atom in the item, but the thought and emotion behind your design, the time spent 3D modeling (if you can), along with any post production you do increases the social value of your gift.

There are many beautiful stories in the Shapeways forums of people 3D printing gifts for loved ones. One of the most recent stories to capture our hearts at Shapeways is an age old story:

Boy meets girl
Boy falls in love with girl
Girl mentions she loves a pendant that is no longer for sale (the impossible mission is set)
Boy becomes the hero, locks his mission into his sights and decides he must design, 3D print and assemble the pendant to give to her (in 2012 the hero fabricates the Holy Grail)
Not knowing how to 3D model so well he enlists the help of a designer from the Shapeways forums (cutting the Gordian Knot with a little help from 3D superstar Kevin Wei)
Shapeways 3D prints the design in Sterling Silver and sends it to our hero's door where he then has a crash course in setting jewels as he glues 150 Swarovski Crystals into the pendant
Once complete he packages up the pendant and sends it across the ocean, nervously anticipating how she will receive the gift he has invested with so much time and energy.

You can read the entire story in the Shapeways forums which includes the line that really summed up the value of giving custom made gift that really captured our hearts.

Oh well, right now it's being transported... so I don't know yet whether she likes it. But honestly, when I send it off... it felt like I was sending a piece of myself... the amount of work and dedication that goes into making this... really made it the most special gift I have ever given somebody.

Good luck David, I am sure she will love it.

Amazing Hand Painted, 3D Printed Miniatures

Check out these amazing hand painted 3D printed miniatures by TurtleWorks.

Each miniature is 3D printed with Shapeways white Nylon (WSF) than laboriously hand painted with an amazing level of detail.

Shapeways 3D Printed Miniature Hand Painted

Take a look at TurtleWorks shop on Shapeways that does not contain any turtles, but does contain many more 3D printed miniatures that you can order in the material of your choice then customize by hand painting for yourself. We also have an entire gallery of 3D printed miniatures on Shapeways, if any of your models are suitable to be included in this category, be surte to assign them in your product page.

Is This the Easiest to Fit 3D Printed iPhone Case in the Whole Entire World (VIDEO)

Check out this 3D printed iPhone case by Spaho Design, that is not only incredibly easy to fit, but also features a socially awkward penguin, surely there is something in this product each of us can relate to?

Many complained that iphone cases out there are really hard to put on and take off. Horror stories; girls breaking their nails, guys getting really mad and slamming their phones, just, really crazy stuff. So I decided to put an end to this madness by inventing an extremely simple way to fit the case around your iphone 5.

Friday Finds: 3D Printed Holiday Edition

As we prepare ourselves for the holidays starting this weekend we are going to take a look at some of the holiday themed 3D printed products in the Shapeways gallery.

Angular Holiday Ornament

Holiday Spiral Torus

Islamic star ball with 6-pointed stars

Dreidel (small version)

africa #ceramic

Happy Holidays everyone.... We will still be 3D printing your designs (almost) every day.

3D Printed Zombie Santa Claus

it's a Zombie Santa Claus Christmas tree ornament!

I haven't been able to find any in stores, and it seems mind-numbingly obvious that this is what people really want on their tree. A limited time offer, this model is available THIS YEAR ONLY. A perfect, unique gift for zombie and tech enthusiasts. Digitally sculpted from scratch, this is not a modification of any existing design.

Sculptor: Justin Cissell

3D Printed Zombie Santa

Shop Owner Holiday Tips Series: #9: Pay to Play

We're back with the seventh in our series of Shop Owner tips to help you get your shop ready for the holiday season.

1. Master the Basics: Making your shop shine

2. Function & Form: Which materials for which products?

3. Discovery: Getting found in search

4. Personalization: Put a name on it!

5. Merchandising: Design for the occasion

6. Promotion: Go where your audience is

7. Fan Engagement: Put down the bullhorn and have a conversation

8. Data is your Friend: Statistics, Tracking and Analytics

9. Pay for Play: An introduction to the advertising world

Once your shop is set up for holiday sales, you're well on your way to being optimized for selling into the new year. These last few tips are going to help you set up a longer term strategy for maintaining a good shop.

By now you've hopefully been running a successful shop, your friends and family flock to it, bloggers are driving traffic, and you've got good data from google analytics to show you whats happening and how to adjust it.

The next step is advertising. A quick and easy introduction to advertising is by using Google AdWords.

You create ads and choose keywords, which are words or phrases related to your products. Your ads appear on Google and when people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to or above the search results. This means you're advertising to an audience that's already interested in you. Read more and get started

Why bother with advertising you ask? Shapeways designer Seth Alexander of Masterworks shares his story:

I have a different ad with different keywords for each set of dice and more general ads for related products such as DND. I'm currently running 8 ads, each with 5 or more keywords.

For my Steampunk Dice ad I use these keywords:

Steampunk, steampunk shop, steampunk gear, steampunk theme, steampunk dice, steam punk shop, steam punk gear, steam punk dice, steam punk theme

Generally, you want to avoid very general keywords such as 'dice' or 'Shapeways' since these tend to draw a high click-through rate but no sales. This means you will be paying a cost per click but getting nothing in return. The keyword 'Steampunk' is debatable because it's so general but I decided to leave it because Steampunk itself is a niche market.

AdWords has doubled my sales from approximately 25 sales/month to 50 sales/month. It costs me approximately 25% of the monthly Shapeways income at my current settings. So the net profit is a 50% gain from AdWords. I would need more time to study the statistics as this is only a 3 month analysis, but I believe it is worth it!

As you probably already know, getting linked on major news sites and blogs has the largest effect and AdWords will add visibility, so those stories are more likely to appear.

What an inspiring story, thank you Seth!

And there you have it, our top tips for your shop. Happy shaping and wishing you lots of sales!

Shapeways meetup at 3DEA Pop Up Shop tonight

Come join us tonight at the 3DEA Pop Up Shop for a Shapeways meetup!

Check out the awesome space, bring 3D prints to share, mingle with other Shapies and meet our special guest all the way from Eindhoven... Mitchell Jetten, better known as our Customer Service agent extraordinaire, and creator of awesome model trains!

3DEA Pop Up Shop

Corner of 29th and 6th ave

7-9pm

RSVP on Meetup.com and sign up to hear about all our upcoming meetups. Sneak peak... 2013 will bring Factory of the Future tours!

Tag Tuesday: The Animal Edition

This week we take a look at the animalistic 3D prints in the Shapeways galleries.

Every Tuesday we update the Shapeways homepage with your designs based on a particular tag. This week we are featuring products with the tag animal to curate the homepage, and show some of the massive diversity of designs within a set theme.
Be sure to tag your designs so that we, and others can better find your designs. It only takes a few seconds and makes your design infinitely more findable. If we can find your design via your tags, and feature them on the Shapeways homepage you will see an immediate spike in traffic, and hopefully sales too.
If your design on Shapeways has some animalistic qualities, be sure to tag it animal and it just may make it's way on to the Shapeways homepage too....

Relevant posts from the Shapeways Blog

Tweet Your Way onto the Shapeways Homepage

Shop Owner Holiday Tips Series: #3 Getting Found in Search

A Look at Shapeways 3D Printed Colors

A Look at the Colors We Launched Earlier This Year.

Earlier this year we launched some new colors and improved the process for our existing colors to make your 3D prints smoother, with more reliable colors. We just wanted to share some images of the current colors across variable geometry, from curved to flat surface, angular sections, emboss and engraving. You can see that the color is quite consistent across the diverse range of geometries. The only significant difference being where the text is engraved or embossed, where small details look to hold slightly more color. We have also noticed that some thin, wiry parts can look slightly darker, with more saturated color than solid, flat surface.

Now that we have these colors locked down, what color Nylon would you like to see us introduce next? Let us know with CMYK or Pantone colors?

Relevant posts from the Shapeways Blog.

Launching New Polished Colors

What 3D Printed Material Would YOU Like to See Next on Shapeways?

Incredible Flapping 3D Printed Weirdness Takes to the Sky (VIDEO)

3D Printed Flapping Crawler Take to the Sky

We do not always know exactly what everyone is 3D printing with Shapeways, Every now and then we see some odd forms coming out of the 3D printers and we speculate what they might be. A sliding bracket to connect a camera to a dog, a rolling half mount to amplify bird calls, or a weirdly flapping crawler to take flight over Japan?
Check out the videos of the ornithopter that was modeled in Autodesk 123D and 3D printed with Shapeways as it is first tested, then launched into outdoor flight. If anyone understands Japanese and would like to translate the site, please feel free to share more information on the project.

Designer Spotlight: Isaie Bloch

This weeks Designer Spotlight focuses on Isaie Bloch, an incredible artist who uses the capabilities and limitations of 3D printing to inform his designs.

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

I'm a Belgian architect and CG artist under the name of Eragatory. After receiving my first master degree in architecture, I joined the postgraduate program Excessive in 2010 lead by Hernan Diaz Alonso, at dieAngewandte, Vienna, Austria. My ongoing research and design ambitions are focused on the correlation between craftsmanship and additive manufacturing within several creative domains including Architecture, Fashion and Plastic arts and the digital methodologies blending in between them. I have been working as an artist in the field of hyperrealism exhibiting in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Dubai and the USA, creating a range of art-pieces reaching from small prints, to 3D printed sculptures and huge hand manufactured installations. I have also been working together with designer Iris van Herpen on several sculptural dresses which have been shown on the catwalks at the Mercedes-Benz fashion week in Berlin and the Paris Haute Couture Show.

What's the story behind your designs?

I generally seek to design pieces dedicated to the geometrical capacities of 3D printing. In my opinion it does not make sense to use 3D printing for the production of regular objects unless they are intended to be prototypes. Just like all production methods all of them have specific characteristics 3D printing offers the incredible advantage of being able to produce almost any type of intricate geometry. And that specifically is the characteristic that I want to project in my work as much as possible. Highly ornamental, specific geometrical conditions and subverted aesthetics are elements which will always be found in my work. The Floralia vases are a design that balances on the edge in-between functionality, digital aesthetics, mass customization and object-oriented eclecticism. In contrast to contemporary thought and design, which views things as the aggregation or assembly of smaller bits and parts, in Object Oriented Design new objects emerge out of an ecology of interaction of multiple and heterogeneous objects. Through a process of formation or computation, highly differentiated, contradictory concepts and structures can become one object, without resulting in an incongruous collage.

Pink Floraria vase printed in Full Color Sandstone

What brought you to 3D printing with Shapeways?

For me personally Shapeways offers the ideal balance in between a very good online service (which is really hard to find) quality, price, materials and production time. Being able to get a direct quote and first checkup of your 3D model instantly is very useful. It speeds up your design process a lot, since you don' need to wait for several days in order to know if you should make this or that differently according to your estimated price. The whole website is so clear and easy to use, the web shops are pretty good looking and not complicated in any way.

How did you learn how to design in 3D?

As an architecture student I was confronted with the possible use of 3D tools. We were not forced to use any of them but it was very clear for me that these tools were going to be a great help according to my own aesthetic and geometrical preferences. So I started to instruct myself using a lot of tips and tricks that I found on the internet. Because of my attraction to ornamental overload and high resolution geometries I acquainted myself to the types of softwares which would not be directly related to architecture like 3DS Max, Z brush and Meshlab.

How do you promote your work?

I try to get as much exposure as possible by publishing my work on design and 3D printing related blogs and magazines. I organize workshops once in a while and during those I lecture about my work as well. All my work is published on my Eragatory blog as well.

Green Floraria vase printed in Full Color Sandstone

Who are your favorite designers or artists?

My interest is pretty wide according to artists I follow. Differing in physical or digital disciplines and status, some are very known and could be on the edge of being commercial and others might just be students or unknown artist with a very good oeuvre. But all of them have a touch of absurdness, eccentric material usage, high resolution intricacy and would preferably have a high level of tolerance for mistakes. Abhominal, Barry x ball, Henrique Oliveira, Jan Manski, Jerry Judah, Mrmann, Katsuyo Aoki, Lebbeus Woods, Michael Hansemeyer, Juliaan Lampens, Wolfgang Tschapeller, Stephan Balleux, Mack Scogin Merril Elam Architects would be a good representation of what I seek for in the creative industry.

Anything else you want to share?

I can not stipulate it enough, despite all the magical 3D tools on the market it is still very important to have a design intent at the beginning. I use these tools as a new set of crayons impowering me to form my ideas not as a series of digital trics generating random geometry. It happens way too often that people get mislead by automated fuctions in 3D software, generally resulting in mainstream/predictible/d?j? vu results. We should be subverting the logic of perfection: what used to be about mastering the perfect result of non-perfect processes should now be about the production of misfit and the grotesque through perfected processes.

That's some incredible advice for budding 3D designers, thank you Isaie! You can see more of his work on his Shapeways Shop or his blog.

The Shapeways Blog: 3D Printing News & Innovation

Shapeways Blog

Friday, December 28. 2012

Friday Finds: The 3D Printed Stainless Steel Edition

FabGeo Pendant No1

Bio Pendant

Me Gusta Coin

500W SubWoofer Ring

Nimyade

10 Most Viewed 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways

The 10 Most Favorited 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways

Another 3D Printed Puzzle to Twist Your Mind: The Cheese Block

Thursday, December 27. 2012

The Value of a Custom Made Gift is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts

Tuesday, December 25. 2012

Amazing Hand Painted, 3D Printed Miniatures

Monday, December 24. 2012

Is This the Easiest to Fit 3D Printed iPhone Case in the Whole Entire World (VIDEO)

Friday, December 21. 2012

Friday Finds: 3D Printed Holiday Edition

Thursday, December 20. 2012

3D Printed Zombie Santa Claus

Shop Owner Holiday Tips Series: #9: Pay to Play

Wednesday, December 19. 2012

Shapeways meetup at 3DEA Pop Up Shop tonight

Tuesday, December 18. 2012

Tag Tuesday: The Animal Edition

This week we take a look at the animalistic 3D prints in the Shapeways galleries.

A Look at Shapeways 3D Printed Colors

A Look at the Colors We Launched Earlier This Year.

Incredible Flapping 3D Printed Weirdness Takes to the Sky (VIDEO)

3D Printed Flapping Crawler Take to the Sky

Monday, December 17. 2012

Designer Spotlight: Isaie Bloch

Shapeways is a 3D Printing marketplace and community.

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The Shapeways Blog: 3D Printing News & Innovation

Friday, December 28. 2012

Thursday, December 27. 2012

Tuesday, December 25. 2012

Monday, December 24. 2012

Friday, December 21. 2012

Thursday, December 20. 2012

Wednesday, December 19. 2012

Tuesday, December 18. 2012

This week we take a look at the animalistic 3D prints in the Shapeways galleries.

A Look at the Colors We Launched Earlier This Year.

3D Printed Flapping Crawler Take to the Sky

Monday, December 17. 2012

Shapeways is a 3D Printing marketplace and community.

Quicksearch

Archives

More Info

Help

Get 3D Printed Inspiration

Don't miss Shapeways Live