Hey there Jewelry Shapies, This piece just arrived, a special request from an Etsy customer, and I'm just so thrilled with the gold-plated steel material that I had to show it off. The organism itself is a weird little microfossil and I've previously had a smaller version of the model printed in silver as earrings. I think the gold-plated steel material really has a lovely effect on this model, though, with the exterior surfaces polished and the internal crevices left rough. Happy, happy. Thank you, Shapeways! Kimberly
Already saw the pendant on Facebook I believe, but great job! Did the Etsy customer also order the earrings? Would be cool to see the complete set!
I've had the earrings printed in silver already, but I would have to modify some thin walls to print them in steel. It would be nice to see a set!
yes.. very nice. Pardon my lack of knowledge re Etsy.. but i thought it was considered a site for 'handmade' or mostly handmade goods? Is that changing? Also as a newbie here I'm really curious if there are a lot of requests for custom 3d modeling through this site in general.. Thanks peeps!
I can understand the confusion about Etsy and the term 'handmade.' Etsy does accept 3D-printed items for sale in shops. Do a search for the term "3D-printing" on Etsy and you'll find them. I consider my jewelry handmade in the sense that all of my pieces are hand-sculpted in silico and represent my own creative design process. In fact, most jewelry these days is designed by CAD and I think sculpting by computer is just as valid as an artistic method as sculpting by hand in wax (which vanishingly few artists still do and which is incredibly limited in what you can achieve versus computer modeling). I can't tell you how many custom requests Shapeways designers get in total, but I get maybe one request a month, some that I take (usually if they're science-related) and some that I don't.