{"id":20323,"date":"2015-03-25T19:46:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T19:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=20323"},"modified":"2015-03-25T19:54:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T19:54:31","slug":"from-finance-professional-to-3d-designer-how-i-got-started-with-shapeways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/from-finance-professional-to-3d-designer-how-i-got-started-with-shapeways","title":{"rendered":"From finance professional to 3D designer: How I got started with Shapeways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dain Penman is a member of Shapeways Crew<\/a> and the owner of the shop Madasu Designs<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I have been 3D modeling, uploading files and printing through Shapeways for around six months now and wanted to share my journey of how and why I got into 3D modeling.\u00a0I work in the Finance industry, but studied industrial design for one semester straight out of school. So the interest in design has been ticking away in the back of my mind for some time now.<\/p>\n

I reached a point where I was seeking a new challenge, but with a mortgage and a baby I didn\u2019t feel I could make a bold leave-my-job-pursue-crazy-idea type move without being completely irresponsible. I had a few product ideas and looked at Kickstarter to fund one \u2013 however when I reached the point of actually launching a campaign I realized my heart wasn\u2019t in the product. And if I couldn\u2019t get excited about it, how could I expect anyone else to?<\/p>\n

So looking to products that I could get excited about, I decided to attempt to make coffee cups. I worked on designs and tried (rather unsuccessfully) to model some cups out of clay as prototypes. I had planned to use the clay cups to make molds and cast coffee cups in resin \u2013 however none of the commercially available resins were food safe, which I felt was a necessity for something containing hot coffee! I briefly looked into using an overseas supplier to make my cups for me, so I could just design and sell. The barrier was the requirement to order a minimum amount of each design \u2013 even stocking only a few designs would be very expensive and take up precious space in my house!<\/p>\n

\"Some

Some attempts at clay cups \u2013 not very successful!<\/p><\/div>\n

Around this time I started thinking about 3D printing, of which I had very limited knowledge. A few Google searches gave me some names and I discovered Shapeways!<\/p>\n

Initially I was designing different coffee cups, but before I could get an order ceramic production ceased. I like to look for the silver lining and in this case it encouraged me to look at different materials and the different ways I could use them.<\/p>\n

\"Shapeways

Shapeways render of one of my early cups in red. Will soon get this printed in porcelain!<\/p><\/div>\n

There have been a few highlights in my Shapeways journey so far:<\/p>\n