Multiple colors of plastic in one part

I'm planning on printing a small trinket testing a potential idea I have - it's a small ball with 6 holes enclosed in a larger, incomplete sphere (270 degrees revolved). I can increase the size of the larger sphere to increase the space between the two spheres if needed, but currently there are about 2mm of space. File is attached for reference.

I was planning to print in a colored polished plastic, but hoped I could print the spheres in two different colors. Is this something Shapeways currently offers? If not, any ideas when that will be possible? I assume it would require a different process than they currently use, but I don't exactly know how they print in different colors to begin with. I doubt there is a person standing there quickly sprinkling differently colored powders as a laser passes over the print bed.

I am specifically asking about two different solid colors, not full color plastic. It would be nice if printing in multiple solid colors was something of a stepping stone on the way to full color. I'm not sure exactly how it would be done best/most efficiently but I imagine it might be easier to deal with than full color plastic.


Also, I'm still very new to 3d printing, having only seen two small printers in passing a couple of times and ordering a couple of simple things I made in my attempts to learn CAD, which I started about 6 months ago when I found out about Shapeways. Any input will be greatly appreciated - I mostly just care about learning.

Not possible here at the moment unfortunately - the recent experiment with a "full color plastic" printer has ended with shapeways' apparent decision not to pursue that particular printer model further, and the latest and most promising development, the HP Multijet Fusion, is currently undergoing first internal tests in a simplified configuration printing in black only.
Your current choices would be
(a) "full color sandstone" - gypsum powder held together with superglue, and painted in print with a simple four-color inkjet printhead,
or (b) "strong&flexible" - laser-sintered white nylon, optionally dyed in a small range of (single) colors post printing, where you would have to paint at least one of the two spheres yourself.
(Perhaps there is an option (c) - print the two parts separately in "strong&flexible" with different dye options and then snap them together - but as I have never tried this myself I am not sure if the flexibility of the nylon material is sufficent to allow this with your current design. I think it would work...)

I'm glad they're actively testing a different printer - I had recently read a little bit about that HP printer actually. For some reason, I was convinced that I would not be able to print moving parts in sandstone... The only issue with it is the size. I really wanted to print this as small as I could, with less than 2mm holes.

Incidentally, you pointed out a flaw in my design that I hadn't thought to check for some reason. My goal had been to make it impossible for the inner sphere to fall out of the outer, but I guess I'm working with sizes that cause the opening in the larger sphere to be about the diameter of the smaller, what with the requirements for separation between pieces. I will probably end up putting a string or chain through this trinket to use as a piece of jewelry or keychain or something, but printing the smaller sphere separately unfortunately means it'll have to remain uncoated, in black or white. At least it does seem like popping the smaller sphere into the opening of the larger would work with these sizes. If I decide to do that (which I probably will, considering the almost negligible cost to print something so small), I will certainly let you know how it works out.


I wonder how long until we can cheaply print things on a nanometer scale...