I happened across a new project to me while browsing the archives: Chumby was mentioned alongside Ponoko in an article in the New York Times back in November.

As the website says:

“The chumby is a compact device that displays useful and entertaining information from the web: news, photos, music, weather, celebrity gossip, webcams, sports scores — using your wireless internet connection”

The interesting thing to me is the extent of its open design: This section of their site is devoted to developers and offers resources for four areas of development: Hardware, software, widgets and crafts. The crafts page offers such delights as the patterns for the fabric elements of the housing, plus IGES files (that is, 3D CAD models) and engineering drawings for all the plastic moulded and metal parts used in the housing. Developers are encouraged and facilitated to modify the design as they wish. All you need is a 3D rapid prototyper! However there is some interesting discussion of more feasible options for creating your own casings on their forum here.

Interestingly, you don’t have to agree to anything to make use of the craft resources, but must click an agreement for access to their hardware (electronics) resources, such as schematics and PCB layouts. This agreement limits you from manufacturing and selling Chumby branded devices, but states; “Our goal is to give our Licensees latitude to modify their Chumby Devices and the Chumby software that runs on them, while preserving our business of running the Chumby Service”. Which seems fair enough.

Still, great opportunity here for any crafters/makers to get involved. Would be cool to see a laser cut variant!

Images from Chumbyfriends on Flickr

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Alex Williamson has found a beautiful mix of materials in her jewellery designs. The designs are inspired by the repetitive lines of modern architecture. These stunning pieces combine laser cut aluminium with soft leather inserts and hand crafted silver links. It’s the brilliant contrast in both colour and texture that really elevates this above many jewellery designs that I’ve seen. The range includes necklaces, cufflinks and rings.

Alex is a member of Design Factory who says she was: “A keen art student during her school years, Alex went to secretarial college and worked in offices for many years. After having two children Alex worked part time but when she was made redundant took the opportunity to go back to college. After completing a 3D Design course at Leicester College and a BA Hons Multi Media Textile Degree at Loughborough University, Alex developed her jewellery collection”.

I think it’s a really interesting idea to blend laser cutting with hand crafted pieces and alternative materials. I think the usual mind set when designing a laser cut product would be to use just laser cutting but the additional elements in this jewellery adds some depth and sophistication.

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This week’s Product of the Week was picked by our very own designer/developer Jimmy. Jimmy confessed that this product grabbed his attention when he did his pre-job interview company research on Ponoko. Talk about a bonus for us!

I also like it too because, as a father, I enjoy things that make my kids happy - and this would make any little tot giggle away. Best of all, if it keeps him occupied for at least 15 minutes, that’s a sell for me!

Pepe Rock is created by STUFF (aka Natasha Perkins) who describes herself as a “Left-handed twin, of Te Whanau-a-Apanui descent, that grew up on a farm next to a quirky coastal village in New Zealand.” And her favorite materials are “anything with a sustainable ethos in its growth/production/making/manufacture /finishing/use/reuse/longevity/recycling/disposal”.

Pepe Rock is a Toddlers Rocking Horse: made of plantation Hoop ply timber, screws, natural rope, delivered flat pack, easy to assemble - 10 mins. even with little helper. Finish in natural furniture wax [not supplied].

H [seat] 270 x W 295 x L 425mm

To see more of her work, check out her showroom.

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We’re very excited to announce that Jennifer Perkins, of the label Naughty Secretary Club in Austin, TX will be our guest judge for the Jewelry Challenge! Jen has been right in the middle of the crafting scene, busy with her own Naughty Secretary Club brand, cofounding the Austin Craft Mafia, producing major craft shows in Austin such as Stitch, and hosting Craft Lab and Stylelicious on the DIY Network and HGTV.

With such an impressive background and equally impressive one-of-a-kind designs of revamped vintage pieces, Jen will be casting her eye for beauty and talent over the results of the Jewelry Design Challenge. Remember, there is still plenty of time to get your design ready for Jen to judge, you can get full details here on how to enter.

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For everyone who wants a complete step-by-step guide to making your own personalized laser-cut jewellery, then check out this brilliant Instructable from Ponoko’s Dan Emery. If you use Inkscape you can download the .svg file that Dan uses in the Instructable here. Inkscape won’t open .eps files so if you want to customize Dan’s design you can use the .svg instead and convert your custom design into .eps once you’ve completed it.

Remember we’re running a contest this month for file uploads, so if you create your designs and add them to MyPonoko you might have a good chance to win $250 making on Ponoko to get them made real.

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A few weeks back I wrote up my experience in using Inkscape with my kids to design a piece of jewellery with Ponoko. Now I can show you the results. They actually arrived pretty quickly but I’ve been messing around since then trying to work out what to use for the chain. We ended up going with the thin black leather, thought it gave the kind of “tough” look the boys wanted. Needless to say they were very happy with the results. They’ve already given some away to their friends and are quite keen for me to “make them some more Lego”. It’s definitely a case of “what have you done for me lately?” in my house.

I’ve added the .eps files to my new Ponoko showroom so if you want to get these made for you or your kids you can download them and have Ponoko cut them out for you. These aren’t for sale though. I’m not sure on what the copyright situation is with something like this. I think you’re pretty safe if you just make it for yourself and don’t try to sell them. At least it seems so according to the comments on this Instructable.

One word of warning. Inkscape doesn’t open .eps files. So if you’d like to customize the design yourself you’ll need the .svg file. And you can download that right here!

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1. He doesn’t do anything at all to remember you on Valentine’s Day
2. He makes an excuse like, “I was too busy at work to get anything”.
3. He buys you chocolates or flowers but doesn’t even write anything in the card.
4. He expects you to have arranged a romantic evening.
5. He thinks you’re going to “make his night” just because its Valentine’s Day, even though he’s done nothing.

Or this post could be called, “How to Show Your Lady You Are A Superstar This Valentine’s Day”. You see Valentine’s Day is tough. In order to show you love the lady in your life you are supposed to give something thoughtful. And let’s face it chocolates and flowers don’t cut it. In fact if you don’t go “thoughtful” then you have to go expensive to impress, either an expensive restaurant or a piece of jewellery. And that quite frankly gentlemen, that just don’t fit your budget.

But don’t worry! There is a way you can really do something completely out of this world this Valentine’s Day. Something that will get you the big smiles and twinkle in her eye that we know you’re looking for. And ladies, it’s not a boys only thing. If you think that men don’t appreciate you doing something unique for them then you haven’t tried hard enough yet.

Check out the pieces of jewellery below from Dan Emery. Dan created these using Vecteezy, a free image index, and then had the Ponoko laser cutter cut the shapes for him. The neat thing about them is they take almost ZERO design skills. All you do is choose an image you like, draw the jewellery shape you want around the image, choose your material, upload your file to Ponoko and presto! You can even add those special words that you know will make her Valentine’s day, and every day she wears it - without killing your credit card or looking cheap.

Of course, the key to this is that when you give your Valentine’s gift you look into his/her eyes and say: “this was created by me, for you, it’s unique, and nothing else like it exists anywhere in the world - just like you”. Valentine’s Day is officially one of the only times you can get away with a line like this.

So, what’s the next step? Go sign up for Ponoko here, have a look at the Starter Guide and our other resources and get designing. There is still time to get it done if you hustle, you need to give us at least a week to get the end result to you. If you are having any problems, check out our Forums or leave a comment on the blog and we’ll help you out.

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I think this is one of the coolest pieces of jewellery I’ve seen a long time. The design and style genius of Trevor Coghill of Contexture Design came up with it. Not only is it beautiful but it’s functional as well since it acts as either a bracelet or “java jacket”. If you’re a coffee nut who’s buying take out coffee everyday you might want one as a cool environmentally friendly accessory rather than as a bracelet. You can be happy that not only are you saving paper, but that the Coffee Cuff is made from recycled cabinetry veneers. If you’re interested in learning more about Contexture Design you can read this article about the Recycling Wizards here. And it looks like you can still pick up your bracelet from their website.

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From these free .eps files:

To these funky Christmas ornaments:

Calling all craftsters! We’ve got a cool Instructable up on making laser-cut decorations.

Using his free downloadable .eps files from Ponoko our very own Dan the Man and his formidable collaborators have put up an Instructable on How to Make Laser-Cut Holiday Decorations. How much easier can it get? This clear step-by-step guide is aimed at novice makers - no experience with laser-cutting or vector art software is required. You just need a steady hand and a computer. It also provides a nice overview of how to use Ponoko, like uploading files and templates, and getting started with Inkscape.

While this may not make it since we’ve got less than a week to go ’til Christmas, it never hurts to be prepared for next year and have your tree looking as cool as you want it to!

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Here’s an interesting question we get asked: How can Ponoko be useful for traditional craftsmen? High-end woodworkers who work with rare and expensive hardwoods, carving every niche and curve by hand?

I know at first it seems almost contradictory: laser-cutting versus hand-carved. But the reality is, templates are incredibly useful for the craftsman. And Ponoko can be useful for laser-cutting precision templates. Designer Jeffrey McGrew of BecauseWeCan.org, a design-build studio in the Bay Area said that they get a lot of craftspeople and high-end woodworkers asking them to make templates all the time. Router templates, clamping/gluing templates, carving templates, layout templates, that sort of thing.

David Marks, a Master Craftsman and host of Wood Works on DIYnetwork.com gives his point of view on why templates are great. After 30 years of woodworking, he’s got his system down. He doesn’t like wasting expensive hardwood and prefers to work out all the problems beforehand on MDF templates, which are easier to shape, especially with curves in the design.