Shapeways Blog

Limited Edition Angry Birds Jewelry Has Landed

blog@shapeways.com (Paul Salisbury) — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:49:20 +0000

There are plenty of Angry Birds fans around the world, and a lot of fan art exists online, including right here at Shapeways. Now Rovio are taking it to the next level and offering Angry Birds designer jewelry in partnership with Primesmith.

This rather striking first piece "Mighty Eagle Ring" is designed by Kristian Saarikorpi and crafted in stirling silver. 3D Printing allows Primesmith to customize each piece to fit, in much the same way Shapeways does. Primesense also has ambitions to further develop 3D tools that would allow fans to design their own jewelry in a similar fashion to My Robot Nation.

You can expect to see more jewelry featured in the collection soon, and at some easier to swallow prices too. Such as the pendant pictured below, which is expected to sell for $50.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see more fan art jewelry on Shapeways too, just remember to avoid infringing on copyrights by bringing your own design flare to the original works you create.

_{Photo Credit: Primesense Source: Forbes}

We're at MakerFaire in San Mateo RIGHT NOW!

blog@shapeways.com (Natalia) — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:19:00 +0000

The Shapeways team has landed in San Mateo, we've already had In-N-Out burgers and we're ready to rock!

Join us tonight when we host a joint meetup with TechShop at 8pm at Harry's Hofbrau. Bring your 3D prints to show and have a beer on us at 1297 Chess Drive, Foster City, CA 94404. RSVP via our Meetup page.

On Saturday, find us at booth #24 in the Expo Hall. Swing by, say hello and check out some of the cool 3D printed products that we will have on display from the Shapeways community and our BRAND NEW MATERIAL.... Elasto Plastic!! I can't believe it's not rubber!

Throughout the weekend, you'll also have a chance to meet Peter Weijmarshausen, our CEO; Carine, Mary and Ben from the Shapeways team and our featured Shapie Christopher Miles (better known for his Ammnra Creations Shapeways shop) and Lincoln Kamm (NovaKingWay)

I'm so excited! I can't wait to share it all with you!

-Natalia

Introducing 3D Printed Black Elasto Plastic : I Can't Believe It's Not Rubber

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

It's squishy, it's flexible, it stretches, it bounces, it blends, it's 3D Printed Black Elasto Plastic!!!!!

Squishy SpringBall by Opresco

Black Elasto Plastic is our first fully flexible material! It is still in the experimental stages of development, and we are learning more about the possibilities and restrictions of this material each and every day. Design, order and give us feedback when your model arrives at your doorstep! This material will be on trial until the July 20th, 2012, so get your orders in soon. After the trial, we will review and decide whether to introduce it permanently, whether we need to change any design rules, etc.

Flexible Design Rules.

As this material is still in its very early stages of development, we rely on your feedback to improve our design guidelines (email Nancy from the Contact Us Page with feedback). Right now, we can make the following suggestions but please be aware that these rules are flexible and subject to change as we learn more and more about this amazing material and how to design for it.

Minimum wall & detail: 1.5mm
Minimum clearance: 1.5mm
Minimum hole size for hollow parts: 6.5mm (in diameter)

Check out our Black Elasto Plastic gallery, products available in this squishy material right now:

Continue reading "Introducing 3D Printed Black Elasto Plastic : I Can't Believe It's Not Rubber"

Shapeways at Model Citizens NYC : May 19-21

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Showing all Kinds of 3D Printed Awesomeness to New York Art and Design lovers.

This weekend as part of New York Design Week Shapeways will be showing off some 3D printed art and design at Model Citizens NYC in SOHO. If you are in New York this weekend for ICFF there will be shuttle buses taking people straight from the event to Model Citizens as well as some general buses to all of the satellite shows in Manhattan. This year we will have works by Chris Hardy, Gilbert13, TheFutureFuture, Marius Watz, Colleen Jordan and more. Swing by to check out their work along with the new ceramics and Black Elasto Plastic 3D printed materials.

What does a 3D printed bunny cost?

blog@shapeways.com (Guido) — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:53:00 +0000

The materials page gives an overview of the materials and their properties including the price. At Shapeways, the price exists of material price and handling fee. Here's a quick overview for the different materials categorized into plastics, metals and glass for Bowie the Bunny from BAROBA's shop.

Please note prices are in US Dollars from Europe so VAT is included. The exact volume is not specified because it is a shop owners model but it can be used as an indicative comparison across different materials.

See the infographic in larger format.

Growing Pains and Community Gains

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:13:00 +0000

A note from Peter Weijmarshausen, Shapeways CEO and Co-Founder:

If anyone has worked at a start-up or a small company, this story is probably all too familiar for you. It goes something like this -- have an idea, build the dream, learn from your mistakes, and keep running. I want to share one version of this story. We made a mistake that impacted our shop owners over the last day, we've learned a ton and will continue to learn, and I think we might even get some new running shoes.

As Shapeways grows, we are continually pushing against the boundaries of what is possible in both the digital and physical worlds. We have helped to make 3D printing available to many people for the first time and made it possible for designers to earn money from their designs with very little investment and no financial risk.

Continue reading "Growing Pains and Community Gains"

Made In NYC : Shapeways Part of Mayor Bloomberg's Digital Jobs Map For Silicon Alley Startups

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:31:00 +0000

Led by Mayor Bloomberg's commitment to realize New York City's potential as the world's leading digital city, NYC's Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne has launched the Made in NY Digital Map showing over 500 startups, investors and coworking spaces including Shapeways. So if you want to get hired, seek investors or work with other creative professionals check out the Made In New York digital map and the Shapeways job page cause we're hiring!

Peter Weijmarshausen Speaking at Mashable Connect 2012 Discussing The Future of Digital

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:48:00 +0000

Shapeways CEO and Founder Peter Weijmarshausen joined speakers from around the world to discuss The Future of Digital at Mashable Connect. Check out the video of Peter's presentation how 3D printing will change the world.

Got Milk? 3D Printing meets Advertising Agency

blog@shapeways.com (Paul Salisbury) — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:13:00 +0000

Creative advertising agency Teehan+Lax have created quite a buzz with a concept for a milk jug that can alert you when it is running low on milk. This is similar to smart-fridge and internet-of-things concepts we've seen before, however, the product itself may not be very practical for real world use.

More interesting is how the agency realized the concept by using 3D Printing. Previously, concept product images and video were likely to be rendered and would never come close to being made due to the manufacturing costs. Now, with a 3D Printer in the agency, the creative team were able to print a working example of the concept and use it in real world cases.

The result is a much more believable presentation of the concept, and I expect we will see similar uses of 3D Printing by creative teams as awareness of 3D Printing continues to grow.

_{via The Verge & Teehan+Lax Labs}

How to 3D Print a Tilt Shift Adapter for your Camera (VIDEO)

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:07:44 +0000

How to make a 3D printable tilt-shift lens adapter for your camera.

More info on Instructables.

3D Modeling Stitch Mesh: The Future of Fabric and Fashion?

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:35:20 +0000

Cem Yuksel and his colleagues at Cornell have developed a way of producing Stitch Meshes for 3D Modeling Knitted Clothing with Yarn-level Detail. The top row of images is photographs of actual fabric while the bottom is the 3D modeled fabric.. An amazing level of detail that would look phenomenal if it were to be 3D printed in some kind of flexible, elastic like material....

Check out the video below to see how it works.

via Solidsmack

3D Printing: Personalized Production for the Mass Market with MIT/Stanford VLAB

blog@shapeways.com (Carine) — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:03:00 +0000

This past April, our CEO Peter Weijmarshausen sat on a panel at MIT/Stanford VLAB about the future of 3D printing. They discussed the future of the industry and the impact 3D printing will have on entrepreneurs, design, and personalized production.

Watch Pete chat along with leaders from 3D Systems, Autodesk, and London College of Fashion, and MAKE Magazine:

Friday Finds: 3D Printed Awesomeness from the Shapeways Community

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:34:00 +0000

Get ready for the weekend with some 3D printed inspiration from the Shapeways community starting with the much anticipated Raspberry Pi case by MarcoA.

ChrisDaMan rocked it with his FIRST EVER RING Design... nice work.

Introducing the puzzling The Low Poly Escher Lizard by mygadgetlife.

The espresso cup "vitruv" using circle and quadrate as handle as leonardo da vinci used it in the vitruv man design.

Amazing 3D Printed Atlas from Portal 2 (video)

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:39:15 +0000

This is one of the most amazingly detail 3D Printed projects we have seen so far on Shapeways.. Atlas from Portal 2 by PsychoBob... WOW.

Take a good look at PsychoBob's blog that has a great step by step of how he made the the model using 3D printed parts from Shapeways.

Intro to Parametric Design & 3D-Printed Jewelry

blog@shapeways.com (Duann) — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:33:40 +0000

As part of Shapeways School through Skillshare Kevin Wei is teaching a 3 day course entitled Intro to Parametric Design & 3D Printed Jewelry.

Together we will create an extraordinarily meaningful and beautiful small object using parametric design and 3D-printing. We will begin with a simple piece of jewelry (Day 1), end with an advanced object of your choosing (Day 2), and then reconvene to share our real designs and receive invaluable feedback from some of NYC's most creative designers (Day 3).

You will learn how a multitude of discrete things - a ring, a necklace, a bracelet; a desk, a shelf, a chair; and even a building structure - can be realized through the use of a single parametric definition. Furthermore, you will explore the behavior of your design through the modulation of its different characteristics, a process that some designers refer to as search, so that you might discover something new beyond what you had first imagined. With help from this workshop, the tools of Rhino, Grasshopper, and Shapeways will become easy and fun to use.

This 3-day workshop is intended for new users of Rhino and Grasshopper. Intermediate knowledge of any other 3D modelling software is highly recommended, but not required. No 3D-printing experience necessary. No coding experience necessary.

Continue reading "Intro to Parametric Design & 3D-Printed Jewelry"