Feathered Heroes

Sick of seeing the next generation stuck behind their gadgets? Well take them away from their tech and bring their favourite feather based destructive app in to real life using your 3D printer and these free (yes! Free!) download files from MyMiniFactory.

Designers Marco Autilio and Lloyd Roberts are the brains who have collaborated Angry birds with the 3D printer, allowing you to download the files and print your own Angry Birds town to destroy with your fully working slingshot. 

You can design your own fortress with various blocks of ice, wood and stone and you can paint your pigs and birds whatever colour you desire. This is a great way to get kids interacting with the 3D printer, and to extend the fun by letting them paint their own piggies before they knock 'em down. You can play with all your favorites so if you're an angry birds fan you won't want to miss out on this game; so head on over to MyMiniFactory to download the file ready for printing. 

Holy crepe!

Although pancake day has been and gone, pancakes are in no way, shape or form out of mind; and what better way to have breakfast like a true king than to print your face in a pancake? 

PancakeBot can fulfill all of your yolky needs, as clever mechanical arms move across the hotplate to print your own pancake design on to, that draws the outline first and then fills in, providing a full picture pancake with colour definition. 

It includes user friendly software that allows you to trace over your own image to create a unique pancake design, and by simply loading the drawing on to an SD you can order the PancakeBot to print you something amazing. 

Not only is this a great product for the average household, it would also make a great companion for any cafe, restaurant and party to allow customers to become more involved in the creativity of their food. Heck, a company launch party would be fantastic if you have the PancakeBot set up and printing out your company logo.

At roughly £120 to print your own pancakes, the PancakeBot is more than well worth the price for hours of entertainment. If you're interested in owning the PancakeBot you can head on over to Kickstarter where there's the option to buy PancakeBot by the bucket load. 

Filthy Swine!

Stiletto heels are so last year, why not walk on meteorite instead? Wait, did you just say, meteorites? Yes, you did hear me correctly, as with a pair of Swine heels you can take fashion to another galaxy by walking in a pair of these stellar meteorite pumps. 

Meteorite shoes were made by 3D scanning rocks to make 3D files and superimposing the shapes to resemble that of a shoe. The exterior is made of aluminium foam which is 90%, making it both lightweight (great for feeling like an astronaut with zero gravity) and durable so that you're free to beat the dust out of this world. Not only are these Meteorite Shoes full of galactic promise, they also have a gorgeous metallic sheen and totally realistic texture that help to portray an other worldly vibe.

Another amazing Swine creation, is their Sea Chair, made as a tribute to the state of the world's sea garbage (and specifically the Pacific Garbage Patch of 1997) is comprised of molten sea plastic recovered from the oceans and molten to create this artistic and very poignant Sea Chair. The processed plastic has a beautiful marble like pattern that intersperses the colours of the plastics, building up thick layers to create a sturdy and stable stool. 

CDBITS

We're living in a digital age, and with CD's near enough disappearing to make way for mp3, what is there to do but use the plastic discs as ninja stars?!? Well, with CDBITS, you can turn your old and scratched CD's into a construction power house. 

These cleverly designed, 3d printed clips allow you to sandwich your CD's in to series of different shapes and designs, making boxes and sturdy storage mechanisms from something you'll otherwise chuck in the bin. CDBITS turn your old compact disks in to modular units that are both decorative and functional, and what better way to inspire upcycling than to let your child build in a more creative way with disused discs and tiny 3D printed clips. 

CDBITS are the invention of design company Avooq Creations, and can be downloaded from MyMiniFactory to be 3D Printed from home as well as purchased online. They're the cheapest and most readily available new building block on the market, and a great way to re-purpose and hack your stack of hoarded CD's. 

OMG I WANT ONE OF THESE!

We've all heard of the 3D Printer and it's amazing advancements in design and technology, but the 3D industry has moved one step forwards and produced this amazing Play-doh 3D Printer; perfect for kids and adults alike...

Okay, okay, I'm not foolish enough to believe this. But whoever came up with this funny gag could be onto something here. A Play-Doh printer would be fun on so many levels. 

If you know someone who's into all their gadgets and the latest breaks in technology, this is defintley a prank worth playing on them!

Drawing in the Sand

 Okay, so this is it... The design that I have been pouring all of my creative juices into for the past six months: The Spirograph Master, and it's finally finished.

It may not be much in the way of looks - but hey, I'm a concept person - though this model depicts what my life sized interactive piece of spirograph machine would look like. 

In real application the spirograph would be hip height and over ten metres in length and completely made out of glass. The idea is that people walk on the glass rim and drag the Egyptian handles around the gear path, thus drawing in the sand a spirograph pattern that is visible and erasable, ready to try again. 

(If you don't know what a spirograph is, it's that mathematical shape on the right -> ) 

The tough part was finding a way to get the spirograph off of the ground and up into the air, whilst still being able to draw a feasible pattern. Which is why I eventually decided I had to sandwich my spirograph between two layers that would keep the rotor from falling through to the floor. 

Using the 3D Printer (I feel like a pro at using it now) I designed three different 3D renderings of Hieroglyphs to relate to my Egyptian influence, these act as the handles and 'pencils' that draw the pattern into the sand. I also resonated with my Egyptian historical link through the hieroglyph engravings in the surface of the spirograph stator, as well as in the use of sand as a drawing material. 

I really love this model, and on a larger scale I could only imagine the interactive fun that can be experienced through creating a spirograph. Though my favourite element has to be that once you've finished, you can sweep the sand over and start again; endless opportunity for creativity.

3D Design: Unit Final

First things first, this project took me a lot - and I reiterate the word 'a lot' - of time both to construct the idea and then to manufacture a working prototype, so I'd appreciate a pat on the back or something. 

Without further ado I introduce to you my 3D printed model of a CNC routed, Gothic bed frame (that's a lot to say in one mouthful). The bed frame is designed to be made from vertically placed pieces of individual ply which have each been laser cut with the same pattern and then adhered together to form the main structure of the frame. Also the bed comes with a series of different sized draws; some that stretch only half way beneath the bed and other that span the whole length, which would allow for the bed to be pressed up against the wall. 

Because of the small size, I wasn't able to print the cylindrical draws that would go in the headboard of the bed that would act like storage canisters. I'd also planned to have several of the draw fronts being digital clocks, electrical charging stations and lights, which would allow for the consumer to pick and choose attachments for an all in one storage solution. 

SolidWorks nearly broke me in the process of working out measurements and building up a miniature replica of my concept, and it took a whole 12+ hours of printing in the 3D printer, but after all of those hours of banging my head against the key board, I came out with this killer example of Gothic/Contemporary furniture.

But if you think it ends there, than you are sorely mistaken. To compliment the Gothic bed frame, I also produced an accompanying table and chair set made of ply that follows a more haunted theme, seen in the skeletal shape of the chair and table legs. The aim of my project was to design articles of furniture inspired by gothical influences. For ease of storage, the table and chairs can be diassembled, by taking the glass panes out of the table legs, removing the centre wedge and sliding the table legs off of the binding ring that holds them together; therefore providing an easier size for storage and transport. 

Because of the amount of ply the design would use in practical application, I tesselated the design in such a way that I made use of as much of the material as possible. As a result of this, I designed a smaller version of the legs and produced cross sectioning candle holders which easily slot together and reduce the amount of waste material on the ply sheet.

Sugar Honey Iced Tea





The Sugar Lab



 Kyle and Liz von Hasseln of The Sugar Lab have broadened the horizons of what 3D Printing can do by creating quite brilliant and aesthetic 3D Printed Sugar Cubes. Though theirs are no ordinary sugar cubes, in fact, the architectural couple of the sugar lab decided to up the ante and use geometric shapes and complex dimensions to make their sugar more fun.  





The Sugar Lab



Their idea came from earlier tried and failed experimenting of trying to 3D Print a cake, and after elaborate testing, this is what the duo settled for: elaborate and stunning sugar sculptures. (Seems kind of a waste of sweet design when it's all but going to end up dissolving)



And if you wanted to try the sugar for yourself, The Sugar Lab are a company that offer custom made sugar sculptures, ideal for topping any cake or adding flawless and often difficult design to any confectionery.



 With 3D Printing it is possible to model almost anything using the sugar so you can think beyond you're average shapes and elaborate on spectacular designs to thrill.







Lights, Camera... Take out!



'Light Up' project- Take out Lantern

It's about time I showcase some of my, erm, talent?

One of our earlier projects saw me designing a light shade using just card, a bit of 3D printed plastic and no glue whatsoever. So after a few clueless weeks, the idea finally came to me in the form of a 'Take out' carton.

This lightshade can be assembled from flat into its shape by slotting tabs together, and to provide legs for the stand, the 3D Printed base table can be slot into the bottom. The legs were designed to look like chop sticks and fixed hole in the base of the box allows a light to be placed from beneath and up into the carton like a side light.

Using the reflective card to better utilisie the light, I laser cut butterfly's into the box to allow light to excape and be reflected by the card to give this overall gentle light.