Are Your Jewelry Designs Available in Shapeways Premium Silver Yet?

Have you had a chance to experiment with our new 3D printed Premium Silver yet? The material takes our 3D printed Sterling Silver to the next level with an incredibly smooth, glossy surface for a professional finish.

Introducing Premium Silver 3D Printing to Shapeways

We have just raised the bar for Silver 3D printing at Shapeways with the introduction of Premium Silver.

Premium Silver is our 3D printed Sterling Silver taken to the next level with an incredibly smooth, glossy surface to give your designs a truly professional finish. We will be offering Premium Silver for a six week trial until Tuesday May the 14th, during which we will assess the pricing and design rules. If you love this new finish as much as we already do, we will keep it as a permanent material option on Shapeways.

It is really important to note that we get this amazing finish on the Premium Silver with manual polishing that may result in very fine details being polished away.  If your design has sharp corners these will be polished to a smoother, rounder edge.  If your design has very fine engraving or embossing, these details may be polished out.  As we progress through the trial we will have a better idea exactly what level of detail will succeed and we will update the design rules and guidelines accordingly.

As with other precious metals, the polished surface of silver is soft, so scrapes and scratches are to be expected as a normal part of wear. To minimize damage and ensure your product lasts a lifetime, we recommend storing your jewelry or other Silver products in a soft cloth pouch and away from other products. Avoid exposing the product to household chemicals during cleaning as they can be damaging to the finish. Silver tarnishes with time, use a silver polishing kit to maintain a glossy surface. 

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Ten Thousand Things: Jewelry 2.0 at the Ace Hotel NYC on Flickr.

Chris Habana: Jewelry 2.0 at the Ace Hotel NYC on Flickr.

Chris Habana & FutureFuture: Jewelry 2.0 at the Ace Hotel NYC on Flickr.

Beautiful Hand Dyed 3D Printed Jewelry

3D Printing is not only about mouse clicks and lasers, there is also a lot of hands-on work required to take an item from bits to atoms, that is why we are always looking for talented people to help make things real in our Eindhoven and New York offices.  Every model is lovingly removed from the various 3D printers, cleaned (sometimes dyed) and shipped around the world.  We do not always get to see what you then do to the parts, what post processing you undertake to make them even more beautiful, but when we do, it inspires us and makes all of the long hours worthwhile.

We recently featured Rachel Goth’s work on the Shapeways blog but I thought it was worth taking another look based purely on the dying of the products that make her Marmalade Park designs look amazing.  Here are some images from her Flickr account to inspire you.

Join Shapeways to Discuss Fashion Innovations in 3D Printing at Eyebeam in NYC

As we see more and more fashion designers like Kimberly Ovitz embrace 3D printing as a way to take their designs direct to market we need to discuss what directions are most suitable to be explored in 3D printing fashion.  Jewelry is an easy win when we can 3D print items in materials such as Stainless Steel and Sterling Silver but we are also seeing more and more textile like geometries being 3D printed in Nylon to create digital fabrics. 

Eyebeam in New York City is hosting a panel discussion on Fashion Innovations in 3D Printing on the 27th of February to explore the intersection between fashion and 3D printing highlighting collaborations between fashion designers, technologists and manufacturers such as Shapeways.

As part of the Computational Fashion program series, Eyebeam presents an exciting event featuring designers and producers using cutting edge 3D printing techniques to push the boundaries of fashion. From the runway to the DIY hackerspace, 3D printing and rapid prototyping have become an increasingly popular and accessible way to produce objects that are both highly complex and easily replicable.  

Presenters include:

Joris Debo, Creative Director (.MGX by Materialise)

Duann Scott, Designer Evangelist (Shapeways)

Bradley Rothenberg, architect & Gabi Asfour, designer (threeASFOUR)

Alexandra Samuel, Dan Selden & Ross Leonardy (Crowd Control)

Date:  27 Feb 2013

Hours:  6:30PM

Cost:  $10 Venue:  

Venue:  Eyebeam, 540 W 21st St  New York, NY 10011

Tickets are now available

Image via Flickr Some rights reserved by ol slambert

Friday Fashion Finds: Celebrating a 3D Printed New York Fashion Week - Shapeways Blog on 3D Printing News & Innovation

This friday we celebrate fashion week in NYC which saw Shapeways 3D Printed jewelry hit the runway as part of the latest Kimberly Ovitz Collection which is now available exclusively via Shapeways. We are also about to unveil and amazing fully 3D printed dress designed by Michael Schmidt with the expert assistance of Francis Bitonti who transformed Michael’s concept into a fully articulated 3D form that is to be worn by Dita Von Teese at the uber-cool Ace Hotel.

Luckily you do not have to be in New York to get cutting edge 3D printed fashion as it is already available on Shapeways.

Getting ready for the @kimberlyovitz show in #nyc. Showing @shapeways 3d printed #jewelry

Depowdering the @shapeways #3d-printed #jewelry for Ten Thousand Things #nyc fashion week launch at the @acehotel (at Shapeways LIC)

Depowdering Anna Sheffeild’s @shapeways #3d-printed #jewelry for fashion week launch at @acehotel in #nyc (at Shapeways LIC)

@kimberlyovitz launching @shapeways #3d-printed #jewelry tomorrow in #nyc

The Value of a Custom Made Gift is Greater Than the Sum of it’s Parts

There is little more rewarding then giving a loved one something that you have made especially for them. The value of the item far exceeds the sum of it’s parts, as the act of making embeds meaning into the object far beyond a mass produced item, or a unique item you may have chosen from as artist or craftsperson. Your participation in the item adds a level of depth to the story and meaning behind the gift, that simply cannot been bought.  The item becomes priceless, not in a Mastercard advertisement kind of way, but the item is embedded with genuine meaning.

Designing a gift using on demand 3D printing with Shapeways may not mean you are hand forging every atom in the item, but the thought and emotion behind your design, the time spent 3D modeling (if you can), along with any post production you do increases the social value of your gift.

There are many beautiful stories in the Shapeways forums of people 3D printing gifts for loved ones. One of the most recent stories to capture our hearts at Shapeways is an age old story:

• Boy meets girl 
• Boy falls in love with girl
• Girl mentions she loves a pendant that is no longer for sale (the impossible mission is set) 
• Boy becomes the hero, locks his mission into his sights and decides he must design, 3D print and assemble the pendant to give to her (in 2012 the hero fabricates the Holy Grail) 
• Not knowing how to 3D model so well he enlists the help of a designer from the Shapeways forums (cutting the Gordian Knot with a little help from 3D superstar Kevin Wei)
• Shapeways 3D prints the design in Sterling Silver and sends it to our hero’s door where he then has a crash course in setting jewels as he glues 150 Swarovski Crystals into the pendant
• Once complete he packages up the pendant and sends it across the ocean, nervously anticipating how she will receive the gift he has invested with so much time and energy.

You can read the entire story in the Shapeways forums which includes the line that really summed up the value of giving custom made gift that really captured our hearts.

Oh well, right now it’s being transported… so I don’t know yet whether she likes it. But honestly, when I send it off… it felt like I was sending a piece of myself… the amount of work and dedication that goes into making this… really made it the most special gift I have ever given somebody.

Good luck David, I am sure she will love it. 

Tag Tuesday : The Gift Edition : Are You Ready for Black Friday

To celebrate the launch of the Shapeways Gift Guide and the impending Black Friday avalanche of traffic to your Shapeways shops this weeks Tag Tuesday is gift. Tag your designs with gift to help people find your designs that are suitable for giving this holiday gifting season.  Over the course of the day we will take a look back at the tag gift and will try and include more in preparation for Black Friday.  We will be doing some promotions over Black Friday so ensure your shop is ready with tags, descriptions and images, yes images!!!!.

Following are a few products in the Shapeways shops tagged with gift, what are yours tagged with?

Friday Finds from the Shapeways Gift Guide

Friday is here and this week we are going to take a look at some of the hottest designs in the Shapeways gift guides.