I know I've done this before, but I have some more materials to add to my wish list for future offerings from Shapeways. Some are based on articles I've read about recent 3D printing developments. Full-Color Paper -- sounds cool. Curious to see it. Wood -- Really great for art pieces. Sugar -- Also great for art and edible. Chocolate -- Who doesn't love chocolate?
Full-color paper has been discussed a few times recently - too expensive, and most of all too hard to remove support material (excess paper) from all but the simplest geometries. The others are FDM materials, and shapeways dropped what FDM printers they had early on as speed and quality was insufficient. Also world-wide shipping of sugar and chocolate models would not be easy.
Laser experiments have printed sugar. Glue(/water) printers for wood and sugar. Colored sugar is going commercial already.
Ah, I have not been following the sweet developments since the iconic CandyFab, looks like the 3ds/sugarlab chefjet is a serious thing. Still shipping could be a major problem, seeing how long it took shapeways (or actually their suppliers) to find a suitable wax-like material.
"Wood" just doesn't make sense to me. It wouldn't be anything like Oak or Cedar with aesthetically pleasing grain to it.. it'd have the same look and consistency as Sandstone. It seems to me that "wood chips" would be extremely difficult to get to any level of uniform particle size unless you make them very very very small. In effect it is just MediumDensityFiberboard (MDF) and we all have our own opinions of IKEA furniture <grin>
Sugar can be a new material ... but I wonder how will be transported ? Like wax ? Paper it is expensive due the fact that firm that made the printer has a fat patent and does not want to give a lower price... Wood .. ? Buy Fabtotum and do some CNC on wood