My Latest Stuff

So many photos...

Gyroid Stress Ball
It BOUNCES! I love the new Elasto Plastic. I can't wait till it's permanent. Sorry, no video yet, but I'll tell you about. It bounce close to 50% of the height it's dropped from and it's terrific for bouncing off the walls and catching (or annoying people around you). Sometimes it bounces too well and rolls away before I can see where it went. Then a game of catch suddenly becomes a game of hide and seek.

A fellow artist suggested this might be interesting to mention: When I make mathematical shapes like this one I don't use any mathematical software to generate the shape. Apparently that's how most people do it. I research the shape, visualize it, and model it by hand in Lightwave 3D without using any parametric surface-generating tools. I don't know how out-of-the-ordinary that is, but that's how I do it.

Permalink: http://shpws.me/o88q

Euclid
This was a fun way to display an acrylic on canvas painting I had previously made. The original painting now hangs in my brother's home. I mapped the painting, with some adjustments to make it continuously loop, onto this moebius shape. The geometry itself is very basic, a simple Seifert surface of a trefoil toroidal knot. The real purpose was a test of the colors of Shapeway's Full Color Sandstone printing. The colors are extraordinary. It was difficult to part with this print. I did however give it to my brother to keep with the original canvas painting.

I also chose this painting because of it's flat, somewhat rectilinear composition, to contrast with the flowing curvature of the model geometry. I really love how this simple shape turned out. It's still my favorite print.

This was my second Full Color Sandstone print. I love this material. It took a while to figure out the most trouble-free file format for uploading a color-mapped model. In the end Shapeway's advice to use AccuTrans3D was extremely helpful. I created the model with Lightwave 3D then exported a Wavefront .OBJ file. In AccuTrans I converted the file to .X3D. I love this file format. It works the best of any file formats I've tried. Plus, it has the added benefit of showing up correctly in the auto-generated product preview.

Permalink http://shpws.me/nFNs

Papillon
This was my first Full Color Sandstone print. It was a gift for my mom, who has owned multiple papillon puppies and is a big lover of the breed. This print came out far more detailed and vibrantly colored than I even expected. The technology is truly amazing.

This was my first semirealistic sculpt of a living creature that I've printed. It was a lot of work. I modeled the dog based on many 2D photographs of various papillons. It took me several tries to come up with a style of fur that I thought was detailed enough too look good, but simple enough to print. When I finally came up with something I liked I was amazed at how great it turned out on the very first print. I had been holding my breath in anticipation, partly expecting failure, but it came out perfect. I cant wait to do more sculptural pieces like this. I've already printed this one several times and given more than one of them to my mom.

Permalink http://shpws.me/nDVX

Goddess

This is one of my favorite prints. One of my favorite passions is jewelry design. It's the reason I got started with 3D printing in the first place. I had posted photos of some hand-made pieces I designed on an artist website. People kept asking to purchase copies. I had to tell them they were one-of-a-kind items that I made for myself or for my wife. When I started displaying 3D modeled jewelry designs people started suggesting 3D printing them. After a little research I came to Shapeways.

This model is named Goddess for the Neopagan symbolism this shape represents. This ancient symbol is a modern sign of femininity in Neopaganism, representing the Triple Goddess. I love how this turned out. Metal prints from Shapeways are amazing. I especially love all the Stainless Steel varieties. The photos show a Gold Plated Glossy Stainless Steel print.

This first print was a gift I gave to my brother's girlfriend. Permalink https://shpws.me/nGDV

Flower Bloom

I love the Frosted Detail acrylic material. I can see why it's so popular. I had originally intended to paint this model, but I couldn't bring myself to do it when I saw how beautiful the original material is.

This started out to be an abstract geometric model, but as I kept playing with it the shape became more an more literal. So, I went with it and added floral stamen. I love the level of detail possible with this technology. I've been meaning to print this one for a long time. The print just arrived a few days ago. I couldn't be more happy with it.

Permalink http://shpws.me/lIPM

Bat Pendant

This was one of my earliest models, but I only recently had it printed. It's my own take on the ubiquitous bat motif used in a variety of cultures, ranging from pop culture to goth. As this was one of my earliest models I had to make some adjustments before it was finally printable. At first I made the loops too thin and the corners too tapered, but that was all easily corrected with a few helpful suggestions from the Shapeways staff. I love how it finally turned out. I am definitely wearing this every Halloween from now on. (an American holiday with European Pagan origins. Google it.)

To design this model I started in Adobe Illustrator making 2D orthographic projections. I imported those into Lightwave 3D as a background image and spline patched the finished 3D shape. For simpler designs like this I find that's often the quickest and easiest way to do it. The photos show a black Polished and Dyed Strong and Flexible nylon print.

Permalink https://shpws.me/lun0

Pi Signet

This is my favorite of all the rings I've had printed. I'm a huge fan of Stainless Steel printed jewelry in general. This one is the perfect size and weight. It's so comfortable. I wear it all the time. I did this as one of my first tests of using typography for cutouts and engravings. The front face is a cutout of the Greek letter Pi and the engraving along the band is the first 21 digits of the mathematical constant Pi. A small bit of trivia -- I put in the numerical value from memory. It's one of those bizarre things I picked up when I was in school that I still remember all these years later.

This model was done entirely in Lightwave 3D. I don't remember the fonts I used, but I think I made a note of it in the original model files. I started with a basic, curved, tapered ring. I then added a flat circular front face with a Pi-shaped cutout. Last I added the engraved printing along the band. I've been using the Co-creator platform to make many of my rings available in different ring sizes. I design them small and simply scale them up to the requested size. That works best for dealing with minimum wall thicknesses. I lightly hand sanded and polished the front face of the ring in the photos.

Permalink http://shpws.me/nvwT

Holey D6

Many of my favorite models are the simplest ones. I love all the intricate novelty gaming dice out there, but this is my favorite design so far and probably the most functional. It's a standard 16mm die made hollow with circular escape holes where the dimples would normally be. It's sturdy, but light as a feather. It's also probably one of the most evenly weighted dice around as the size of the holes is miniscule with respect to the overall volume of each face. I doubt there is any statistically significant imbalance. I designed this in Lightwave 3D. The photos are of a white Strong and Flexible Polished print.

Permalink http://shpws.me/nKyy

Magic

I even like how the print layer lines are on this print. It's a beautiful Stainless Steel pendant that I wore yesterday. I named it magic because it is the Seifert surface of three interlocked rings, like magicians commonly use. I designed this model in Lightwave 3D.

I found a post where someone was questioning the material strength of 3D printed items. I steered them to Shapeways' metal prints. I bet I could drive a car over this one without damaging it. (I won't try it though.)

Permalink https://shpws.me/nUgu

More suggestions for @ElisaRichardson to include on Friday Finds (as well as the previous prints mentioned in this thread).

Strawberry

I'm really proud of how this one turned out. I used the branches and leaves to form a built-in loop for a necklace and I used the escape holes to evoke the many seeds on the surface of the strawberry. The Coral Red Strong & Flexible worked perfectly for this design.

Permalink: http://shpws.me/lp0h

Knot of David

This was a fun way to turn a simple toroidal knot into a springy six-pointed star. This Royal Blue Strong & Flexible pendant is one of my favorites.

Permalink: http://shpws.me/omHp