If someone were to tell you five years ago that you would be able to 3D print a garden in the next few years, your disbelief would probably grow faster than the grass hair on a Homer Simpson Chia Pet. However the momentum of mixing digital fabrication with non-traditional materials doesn’t seem to be slowing…

One of the biggest hurdles in moving 3D printing forward has been the material constraints for creating ‘all-in-one’ products. Sure you can take apart that old computer mouse, hack together a new form factor in SolidWorks, spit it out of your MakerBot and fasten the still-warm pieces together, but few people would call that ‘revolutionary’…

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…

With it’s earthy tones and fibrous appearance, it almost looks appetizing enough to eat. Inspired by alternative manufacturing processes that could help re-shape the Greek economy, University of Edinburgh grad Spyros Kizis has developed a way of using Artichoke Thistle fiber mixed with a new waste-oil biological epoxy resin to create a plastic-like material that…

The iPad stylus market has seen an interesting turn in recent months with the release of Wacom’s Intuos Creative Stylus and now this morning, the Pencil by 53. For anybody who has used the iPad app Paper by 53, you might be familiar with 53’s exceptional attention to detail in the user experience and their…

These days, most digital tasks can be completed with a current smart phone, but until very recently, 3D printing has not been one of them. However, Gerhard de Clercq and Pieter Scholtz, two fifteen-year-olds from South Africa, have set-out to change that. The student duo recently unveiled an app that they programmed which can accurately…

With their recent launch of Cubify Design, you would think that 3D Systems would hypothetically be sitting back in the boardroom drinking coffee and eating jelly doughnuts while waiting for the world to take notice. While that actually doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend a Friday morning, 3D Systems are keeping their momentum…

One year ago, Madrid-based architecture and design studio Kawamura-Ganjavian introduced their Ostrich Pillow concept to the masses on Kickstarter. After crowd-sourcing nearly three times their original $70k fundraising goal, the company brought their head-enveloping pillow to market, and some might argue, laid seeds to revolutionize the world of napping. But they didn’t stop there—K-G Studio…

Looks like Autodesk is celebrating their 2012 acquisition of a CAM software company… with the acquisition of another CAM software company. Out of the press, fresh this morning, comes the news that Autodesk intends to acquire Delcam, maker of PowerSHAPE, PowerMILL, PartMaker, ShoeMaker and many other CAD/CAM Solutions.

For centuries the chair has been the quintessential design challenge for creative minds the world over. How can I possibly do something new with this old form?—is a question that many designers have asked themselves over the ages, while trying to infuse their sitting-devices with style that is markedly their own. Fortunately for twenty-first century…

Perhaps you’re one of those fine folks who enjoys a leisurely ride around your village in a tweed suit and impeccably-kept vintage bicycle (the real kind, not the re-issues). For most riders, having that much cool-factor is borderline uncomfortable, and I’m sure the tweed suit doesn’t help make the riding comfortable either. For the rest…

In theory, if I were to take a hot glue gun and adapt a CNC-machined nozzle with a heat-sink on it to replace the existing glue-gun nozzle, then I could do what a 3D printer pen does in wax instead of plastic…but would I call the result a 3D print? No. It would be a…

Operating in the fields of design, fashion, and architecture, Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves of Studio Swine have made a unique name for themselves through their exploration of design through material innovation and creating new sustainable systems with a strong focus on aesthetics. Having received multiple international awards including those from Wallpaper Magazine and the…

Have you ever dreamed of what it would be like to live in the dark, popcorn-scented and smoke-filled acoustic glory of a 1950’s movie theater? If you have somewhere between $18,500-$175,000 to spend on a stereo system, then your 1950s-nostalgia dreams could come true with a custom, handmade audio system from Oswalds Mill Audio, which…

Inspired by the unique balance of what gives a fine whiskey it’s character, (in this case, Ballantine’s 12), Stockholm female design trio Front have created a unique sculpture set by the name of Ballance that embraces the ritual around consuming the fine liquor…so long as you can avoid ‘catching it’ with it’s balancing optical illusion…

Leave it to a lamp to lather the locally manufactured back of custom design and show us how efficient some products could be. Chris Chalmers, founder of Fabripod, is the San Francisco maker/creator behind the very cool Chrysalis project, a project with the idea of helping designers create custom products. Chris, taking the essence of that…

For those who have had the time to get their feet wet in Autodesk’s Cloud-based CAD platform Fusion 360, you might have been missing a few ingredients from your previous workflow in another CAD package…particularly in the rendering department. On Wednesday October 9th, that problem will be solved after the announcement this morning that Luxion…

Make the World. There are a lot of people talking about the shake up 3D printing is bringing to the manufacturing space and a few actually making it all happen. Our friends at Adafruit have announced a new month long Google+ Hangout series that takes a deep dive into the stories that are shaping this commonly stated…

With plans to launch this fall, MatterRemix is entering the browser-based 3D modeling game with a slightly different twist from what we’ve seen with other browser-based modelers: What if users could take existing STL files and give them an Instagram-like photo filter ‘remix’ for creating custom, sharable, 3D printed goods?

For those who have tried Phillipe Starck’s Parrot Zik headphones, you might be familiar with the up/down swiping for adjusting the volume—among other touch-sensitive controls on the headphones themselves. While some non-audiophiles may scoff at a pair of $400 headphones, the design is truly a step forward in how we interact with our audio devices.…

It’s been a dream of sci-fi fans for years: the flexible, semi-transparent digital newspaper that can fold up and be placed under your arm. That dream is a tad bit closer to reality today as Chinese researchers have released a video of their recent developments in creating the necessary materials for further developing flexible and…

Repurposing existing industrial products into a static sculpture is a beast to tackle in itself, but what about creating kinetic sculptures that actually…play decent music…and have a social message behind them? Artist Pedro Reyes has done just that with his collection of eight new instruments created from repurposed firearms. Built in collaboration with several musicians…

You may have just returned from that weekend trip, growing your beard and connecting with nature via a fish hook to the cheek… the ear… and also the upper eyelid. You even caught a few fish to prove it could actually be done, but tying on those fish hooks after clipping them repeatedly from the…

How do you open your first 3D print store? Why you kick off the event by cutting a 3D printed chain with a pair of bolt cutters. That’s exactly what iGo3D did. An established online 3D print source/supplier, they’re bringing on the brick-and-mortor, opening the doors over the weekend to the iGo3D Store, the first…

When most people think of the word ‘frugal’, manufacturing their own silverware and flatware using household appliances and items found around the apartment don’t usually come to mind. When it comes to conceptual experiments in small scale manufacturing however, that’s a different story. Using everything from a disassembled embroidery hoop as a rotating cast in…

Few things could be as satisfying as the primal act of burying yourself deep in the Latvian woods for the winter season making knives by hand, yet the talented crew at John Neeman Tools lives this reality every day. Their mission? To use their blacksmith and woodworking knowledge that’s been passed down through many generations…

While there are plenty of books on the various methods of fabrication techniques, a select few ever appear on the subject of modelmaking and protoyping for product design purposes. Sure, there is value in learning dovetail joints and proper bandsaw maintenance, but the core values of these existing books tend to veer into ‘shop class’…

Ever wonder what a LEGO garden would look like? TogetherFarm founders Matt Stormont, Joe Aakre, and Doug Holcomb have set out to recreate what it means to have a backyard garden through the use of LEGO-inspired bio-plastic building blocks. With a retaining wall design that requires few materials to haul and eliminates the need for…

It seems like everybody has a favorite product from the Back to the Future series. Whether it’s Marty McFly’s Nike Air Mag Sneakers, a Delorean, or the Black and Decker ‘Hydrator’ that turns a Bagel Bite into a full-sized pizza in seconds. Personally, I’ve always dreamed of owning a Hoverboard. While there have been a…

When you’re thinking about squeezing those mashed taters between your fingers and your elbow skin starts to flare, it usually means one thing. You have a hankering for some completely unfettered week-night sculpting insanity. Now, you have quite a few options out there, the newest of which is Cubify Sculpt. 3D Systems announced the new…

It is as it had been. A bleeding seized upon the land, green absorbed, mechanicals tremoring to the surface with dust in one hand, a cigar in the other and a cape of pure light stitched together with these links. Hugo Martin – Incredibly rich, complex environments, keyframes, matte painting and more to set the…

Each month, tons of fire hoses from the thousands of fire departments around the world end up in landfills. Oakland, California-based startup Oxgut (sweet name BTW, inspired by what firehoses used to be made of) is aiming to re-route at least a few of those through their network of designers and artisans where the hoses…

While the concept of 3D printing eyewear frames isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, new company Protos is aiming to use 3D printing as a method of final manufacture on a mass market scale. For those with tiny noses, wide faces, or anything that’s overlooked in ‘stock’ eyewear designs, this just might be the next Warby Parker for…

Shaving your head, eyebrows and facial hair to instantly apply a putty to your face when the time calls for it is an important skill nowadays, especially considering the joy you’ll bring with various candies added to the outer layer. There are a few options, but frankly, decoupage and papier-mâché is just so messy. Silicone…

Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away the LEGO Deathstar is silently weeping laser tears as it hides under the blanket. Yes, the LEGO Deathstar has been dethroned as the coolest lego project ever…by a DIY project that yes, YOU can build if you feel so inclined. The LEGObot is the brainchild of engineering student…

Don’t let your eyes deceive you people…this is not a mockup or macro photography trickery. Inspired by the appearance of corrugated cardboard, Swedish design studio TAF recently designed the offices for Swedish branding and design agency NINE with interiors that resemble cardboard boxes—a well-played nod to the packaging design that happens within the agency’s walls.

Not sure about you, but I enjoy a plate of steaming hot Styrofoam chunks and raw silicon rubber in the morning. I enjoy it even more when it’s chock full of electronic and re-soldered PCB bits. Delicious. Now, take that and turn it into a lesson on form, function and recycling a USB mouse to…

Shapeways recently announced a new material, a ‘Maker-only’ material called Elasto Plastic–high strength, high flexibility, low detail and smoothness. I was intrigued. What wondrous creations could be manufactured with this wondrous material? Having created many other items with many other materials via Shapeways, there was definitely a lot of possibility for a more flexible material.…

Reverse that Z-axis and cool the extruders. The print beds of the 3D Printing scene are amalgamating into a massive prosumer platform with two 3D Print manufacturers joining forces. Two weeks ago we reported on the rumored acquisition of MakerBot. Our first guess was Stratasys and although we thought that it was “highly unlikely that…

The garage. Such a lonely place to sift through drawers of resistors and unsorted hardware. Look into that glaring flood light illuminating your workbench and dream that dream, once again, of starting your very own hackerspace. Adafruit has posted a great guide on How to Start a Hackerspace created by Eric Michaud who, as you…

If you’re like most people, you can easily spot the difference between a cheap product and a quality product — the price typically matches, too. A lot of time and attention goes into the design and craftsmanship of quality products, which is why they cost more. However, some companies go above and beyond the normal…

Back in July of 2012, Shapeways teased Makers with a new material offering in the form of Black Elasto. Revealed this week, the NEW Elasto Plastic is a refined offering for Shapeways Makers that while still in it’s experimental stage, is readily available and looks extremely promising. Let’s take a look.

Unveiled yesterday in Brazil by Nike, the latest advancement in football (soccer) boot design came in the form of a boot that utilizes the new NIKESKIN mesh for an upper, effectively allowing the player to get as close as possible to the sensation of playing barefoot. How is the game changing and how did the…

Ahh the world of iPhone case designs. It seems that ever since Apple posted the iPhone blueprints for case designers, it is impossible to escape ‘the next big thing in iPhone case design’…especially when it involves 3D printing. Perhaps Graft Concepts is one of the more unique case designers, however. By creating a system of…

While 3D printing may not be disrupting entire distribution chains, there are quite a few people who will be printing their next iPhone case, or glasses, or headphones, or toy set…rather than purchasing one off of Amazon. While it may be a drop in the bucket, it is still real, and it is a threat.…

We’ve seen some killer 3D robot arm printing come out of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) before in both clay and sand with others exploring recycled plastic, but this new collaboration between researcher, Petr Novikov, and architect, Saša Jokić, is making the print and the printer an absolute art form. Mataerial is…

Perhaps none of us will top the professional-level squatting recently done by a young entrepreneur at AOL’s headquarters. The then-19 year old Eric Simons was a part of an AOL incubator focused on helping young people with their startups. Having ran out of money, the persistent Simons ended up squatting at AOL…showering in their gym,…

There are ever-increasing piles of 3D prints being amassed upon the earth–single-color, multicolor and a healthy amount of plastic squiggles that didn’t quite make it through the process. It’s sometimes (always) nice to know how people are going about building and creating the contraptions that lead to hours of tinkering and even more hours of…

I don’t care what people say. There are not enough well-designed office chairs in this world. From stumps of wood and rubber balls to cockpit office consoles that come with a 5,000 page manual, we’ll always need some way of looking ultra-efficient and ultra-stylish while our butt and legs slowly blend into two slender columns…

There’s so much news coming out on 3D Printing this year, it’s becoming difficult to both cover it all and separate out the wheat from the chaff. With printers being announced every other week, new materials and reports of acquisitions, it’s no surprise that 3D printing is getting the coverage it has. Throughout all of…