{"id":2519,"date":"2014-05-02T16:14:15","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T16:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/archives\/2519-the-heart-of-my-inspiration.html"},"modified":"2014-07-03T17:34:25","modified_gmt":"2014-07-03T17:34:25","slug":"the-heart-of-my-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration","title":{"rendered":"The Heart of My Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Lucywithbronzependant.jpg\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>By Nate Schmidt<\/p>\n<p>From Eleanor: <em>This is the second entry in our series highlighting design inspiration and know-how from the Shapeways Crew community members. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/designer\/LHDesigns\" target=\"_blank\">Nate Schmidt<\/a> is a signal engineer living in Jacksonville, Florida who uses 3D design and printing as a form of expression and sells his creations on Shapeways as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/designer\/LHDesigns\" target=\"_blank\">LHDesign<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n<p>I was driven by a personal tragedy to learn 3D design. I have always been attracted to the feeling you get when creating something, whether it be through wood working, gardening, or cooking. I work as an engineer, and have never really considered myself artistic or really even creative. I now find that designing has a therapeutic effect on me. &nbsp;I find it&#8217;s relaxing to lose myself in a design and, for a time, shed off some of the stress and worries of daily life. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>My foray into design began when my daughter, Lucy, was born with a rare and very serious congenital heart defect. &nbsp;We were extremely lucky and discovered it early. When she was a week old she underwent open heart surgery to correct the defect. &nbsp;For the next few weeks I sat by her bed in the hospital obsessing over one little organ, that was so vital and yet so delicate.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It wasn&rsquo;t long after bringing my daughter home from the hospital that I can across a news article about 3D printing and all of the amazing possibilities the technology had for changing the future. I was astonished to learn that all I had to do was learn how to design in 3D and I could make anything I ever wanted. I made it a goal to make a unique piece of jewelry as a reminder of my family&#8217;s struggles and, ultimately, our victory.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/RawBronzependant.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Learning a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/creator\/tools\" target=\"_blank\">software package<\/a> was the next step in my journey. Right away I chose <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blender.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Blender<\/a>. I was so impressed with all it could do, the community that supports it, and, of course, the price (it&rsquo;s free). &nbsp;I soon discovered that learning how to design was a bit more of a challenge then I had expected. I&rsquo;m sure any of the Blender users out there will understand where I&rsquo;m coming from. &nbsp;I was so frustrated for the first week or two, that I almost quite right then and there. I was like a child who was ready to run, but still hadn&rsquo;t learned to crawl yet. I had this great idea in my head, and all I had to do was get the stupid software to realize it! I stuck with it and while I love Blender now, but we had a rough start and the learning curve is very steep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>I gradually worked up enough skills to make the Anatomical heart pendant that I had set out to create when I decided to learn 3D design. I opened a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/designer\/LHDesigns\" target=\"_blank\">shop on Shapeways<\/a> and it&rsquo;s great to know that others are wearing this symbol that I created to honor my daughter&rsquo;s strength. It is my intention that it may provide comfort to someone else whom is affected by heart defects or heart disease and serve as a symbol of hope.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Nate Schmidt From Eleanor: This is the second entry in our series highlighting design inspiration and know-how from the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":16136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[478],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/RawBronzependant.jpg","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Heart of My Inspiration - Shapeways Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Nate Schmidt From Eleanor: This is the second entry in our series highlighting design inspiration and know-how from the Shapeways Crew community\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eleanor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eleanor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#\/schema\/person\/999c08cadbfc7f732aacec738bc8f812\"},\"headline\":\"The Heart of My Inspiration\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-02T16:14:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-03T17:34:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prodshapeblog.wpenginepowered.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/RawBronzependant.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"The Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/the-heart-of-my-inspiration\",\"name\":\"The Heart of My Inspiration - 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