In CULTURE

Tricks of the Trade: How to Sharpen Pencils with Artisanal Pencil Sharpener David Rees

2 Mins Read

Laugh all you want, but sharpening pencils is a serious business…just ask Artisanal Pencil Sharpener David Rees. As the number one #2 pencil sharpener in the world, David makes thousands of dollars a year through his pencil sharpening business and even has a book on the topic—appropriately titled ‘How to Sharpen Pencils‘. In this humorous film festival-favorite short from Price Films, David takes us behind the scenes to gain a better perspective of his process that will put your desktop electric pencil sharpener to shame.

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In FAB

Foam for Thought: Examining CNC Foam Milling and Appreciating the Work Behind It

3 Mins Read

3D modelers of both the engineering and artistic flavors can probably agree that seeing the realization of their digital models is one of the most rewarding aspects of the job. Bringing digital dreams into the physical realm is what defines our current era, and it is the challenge of constructing unprecedented objects that pushes us to dream even bigger. But sometimes, even the most observant and astute of creators can lose sight of the extraordinary craft that goes into fabrication projects that are not their own. For that reason, I believe that it is important to stay sharp by investigating the details of the objects that move us—even if those details might seem obvious or drab at first glance.

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In NEWS

On Location: The New Greenwich, Connecticut MakerBot Store (video)

2 Mins Read

Aside from being one of the most livable places in North America, Greenwich, Connecticut has one more aspect going for it these days: their very own MakerBot store. With slightly more breathing room than their NYC flagship store, the Greenwich store resides in a village-like storefront on Greenwich’s main street amongst cozy pubs, ambient coffeehouses, and the occasional designer clothing store. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the new Greenwich location (or the Boston location for that matter), it’s worth taking a peek next time you’re in the area. We stopped by last weekend and got a personal store tour from MakerBot’s Jeremiah Thurston.

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In FAB

Magna-Frying Glass: Using Plastic Fresnel Lenses to Concentrate Sunlight

3 Mins Read

If you are a fan of Do-It-Yourself projects and homegrown pyrotechnics on your patio, then there is a chance that you have heard of a tinkerer named Grant Thompson. This is a clever guy who has made a name for himself by building a host of fun (and mostly dangerous) devices from easily-sourced materials and household ingredients. The self-proclaimed “King of Random” has over eight-hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube and has undoubtedly inspired many minds with his captivating how-to instructional shorts. But, there is one video of Thompson’s in particular that might imply a level of real-world potential that goes far beyond the musings and novelties found in most life hacking videos. In Burning Stuff with 2000˚F Solar Power”, Thompson demonstrates that the awesome power of the sun can be harnessed cheaply and on-the-fly using the lens component from the screen of a rear-projection television set, and the results are shocking.

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In DESIGN

Ten Inspiring Quotes on Design and Creativity from the 2013 Autodesk CAVE Presentations

2 Mins Read

While Autodesk University has been a premiere event for the product design community for quite a few years now, there has historically been little to offer in the form of concept design, design sketching, and general creative inspiration outside of the CAD/CAM world. This year however, Autodesk launched their first-ever CAVE Conference with the goal of bringing some of the top creatives in the world of product design and other creative fields to share some of their insights on how they approach the design process, tricks they use to spearhead their creativity, and how they keep their already-exploding-with-creativity minds fresh with new ideas. Here we’ve rounded up ten of our favorite creativity-boosting insights from a few of the impressive speakers ranging from industrial design sketching masters Scott Robertson and Spencer Nugent to Coraline author Neil Gaiman and actor John Cleese.

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