“Form follows constrains” philosophy aids design processAlienology’s physical design output is pretty impressive.  As a designer your head space has to be perpetually filled with evolving concepts.  Time permitting, those imagined concepts become sketches or even make it to the CAD phase for rendering.  Resources permitting, a concept will result in a prototype.  However, the chances of the prototype ever becoming a product that makes it to the market are pretty negligible.

Alienology founder Igor Knezevic isn’t interested in showing half-baked concepts or even refined ideas.  Alienology portfolio consists only of products available for purchase – an outcome enabled by a commitment to minimise the time span between idea and the manufactured object. Igor has embraced on demand digital fabrication with every limb to rapidly move through a process that would have required much time and capital investment under the traditional manufacturing model.

The LA based design company embraced the Ponoko model from the onset and has used its laser cutting and 3D printing services to create numerous lighting elements, jewelry and tableware.  Igor already had experience with digifabbing technologies and had access to making facilities, but the option of an online service made it possible for him to focus on designing the products rather that concerning himself with how to make them physically.

Of course, design is never a straight forward process, and prototyping one of its integral features.  Many of Igor’s designs undergo repeated experimentation to achieve the functionality, fabrication efficiency and the desired aesthetic of the final product.  Igor has had pieces 3D printed in plastics and Stainless Steel, and for laser cut objects worked with tinted acrylics, felt and different wood materials, such as Veneer Core and Eurolite Poplar.  He makes a point of considering material quality as one of the starting points in a design, so little finishing is necessary to complete the products.  There are also some products that are designed to be spray-painted and lacquered.A few words from the designer after the jump:

(more…)

Posted in 3D Printing, Furniture + Lighting, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Maker Stories, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   First CNC Product
2. 

   Digitally fabricating high performance products for virtual racing
3. 

   Sustainable Production
4. 

   Why 2D plus 3D excites us so much

Plus Make Your Own Mom Presents with FREE design files!

Mother’s Day is only a couple of weeks away, so we have some creative inspiration and gift ideas to get you on the path to becoming your mother’s favourite child. Few admonitions are as cutting as “I am disappointed in you” coming from your mom. Make sure you make her something wonderful this year, or at least buy her something unique that doesn’t come from a mall.

Personal ornamentation is often a popular option. Gilded Butterflies are a range of one off fluttering pendants that are as individually unique as each butterfly’s wing pattern. The pendants are laser cut out of bamboo plywood and laminated with real butterfly wings. Feisty Elle offers an impressive variety of intricately cut bamboo and 100% wool felt jewellery, with the dahlias being so well recognised that they are now being plagiarised around the world. Plagiarism is not cool. Colleen Jordan’s 3D printed miniature wearable planters are infinitely customisable by whatever is planted inside, and they are also available in different shapes and colours.

Jewelry needs somewhere to be stored. Harbinger Co don’t just make jewellery, but also create beautiful boxes for all that loot. You may be already the apple of your mother’s eye, but chances are that there are some other family members that your mom is fond of. Such as the dog or the goldfish. Familial pride and joy is best displayed photographically, in a picture frame, such as the flower one by BEDA Design Inc. You know you’re not doing your mom proud if the goldfish gets the middle flower. On the topic of furry and scaly friends, Pepper Sprout Designs make animal themed trivets amongst many other home gifts. These are laser cut from 100% wool felt.

Your mom will hopefully be happy to see your smiling face, and should that grimace require additional illumination, a lamp could be very useful. Alienology create different types of lighting, including the Bloom Table Lamp that is laser cut from Eurolite plywood. Jenny Keate’s fluffy Luminant lamp is made from a combination of wool and laser cut plywood. It has the softness of a sheep without any of the annoying bleeting. Another home frienly idea of mum is a Decoy Lab clock made from Earth friendly bamboo and adorned with a forest-full of cute animals.

The best gift is the one made by you, and we’re here to help facilitate the opportunity by providing FREE design files that you can download, customise and make with Ponoko. The Tulip Vase is designed to be flat packed and easily assembled with minimal components. All you need is a glass test tube to put water and flowers in and to give the vase structure, so no glue is required. If made from plywood or MDF, the parts can be painted, waxed or varnished, and there are a few finishing options for both US and NZ materials. The Ball of Stars by Dizingoff is designed as a 3D printed art object that can be made into a light with an addition of an LED. Mother’s Day is usually accompanied by a greeting card, so this is no exception. The Lace Card is designed specifically for cardstock, which is the Ponoko promotional material until the end of April – design something to be laser cut from cardstock and you could win a neat piece of technology. We even have a tutorial on how to use laser cutting to make greeting cards.

Posted in 3D Printing, Downloadable, Functional Art + Objects, Furniture + Lighting, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Personal Factory Projects for the Holidays
2. 

   Personal Factory Projects for Valentines Day
3. 

   Personal Factory Projects for Halloween
4. 

   Personal Factory Projects for The Kids

Retail Ready with Sniffle Co entrepreneurJohn Patterson is a musician and a designer. His musical passion is expressed through The Grates, while his graphic creativity lies behind the Brisbane based company Sniffle Co which he runs alongside his friend Melissa Perry. Most of John’s designing is done on the road, and the shot of his work space (above) is an apt illustration of his working lifestyle. John designs whimsical jewelry that is laser cut from poplar plywood before being hand painted and lacquered.

Read the interview after the jump:

(more…)

Posted in Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Small Business Stories, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with jewelry designer Janice Law
2. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with jewelry designer Kimono Reincarnate
3. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with eco-jewelry designer Leslie Yang
4. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with clock designer Maiko Kuzinishi

Stability of MDF with beauty of natural timber grainMDF is possibly one of my least favourite materials.  It has no soul, although it’s certainly very practical.  There is also something unsavory about the word “veneer”.  The connotation of falseness is ever present and is at odds with my like of material honesty.  But you cannot argue with practicalities of using a wood material that won’t warp or shrink or crack.  Besides, the veneer is a real timber – thinly peeled off a rotating tree trunk and laminated onto the MDF sub straight.   The different grains do look authentic and beautiful, and their surface can also be treated with various waxes and varnishes to both seal the surface and enhance the grain.  Check out the surface treatment options for the US and NZ wood materials.

The practical and aesthetic properties of veneer MDF make is an ideal material choice for display design and furniture.  Colin Francis uses Rimu to make engraved wineracks and similarly planar flat-pack Test Tubed vases.  The Hands shelf is by Studio Wun and is available in various finishes.

Wall art is another common application for this month’s material.  We’ve interviewed MODULA.R.T’s Donald Rattner in the past – MODULA.R.T have designed a whole customisable system of wall ornamentation using a combination of veneer MDF and colour acrylic or felt.  Otto Gunther’s approach to wall art is entirely different – combining digital fabrication with painstaking finishing by hand to produce one off pieces.

Veneer MDF engraves beautifully, and both raster and vector engraving can produce outstanding detail, like in Peppersprouts coasters cut from Cherry.  Blimp Cat Studio create custom cake toppers from Walnut veneer, and Kai Howells offers customised Rimu veneer trophies.

Even little objects like jewelry can be successfully cut from veneer MDF.  Australian designers Little Miso and Nevertheless are big fans of the American Cherry, and Bonnie Poplar uses also uses this material for her brooches, along with the Rimu.

On the topic of jewelry, this month’s free design files are for jewelry trees.  The small Swirl stand is designed for US veneers, while the large tree is designed for the NZ stock.  Of course, the base slots can be adjusted in thickness to accommodate materials from either hub.Ponoko US offers Cherry, Walnut, White Oak

Ponoko NZ offers Rimu, American Cherry, Maple, Tasmanian Ash, White Oak

Get your material samples of US: Cherry, Walnut, White Oak; NZ: Rimu, American Cherry, Maple, Tasmanian Ash, White Oak

Posted in Art, Functional Art + Objects, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Materials Catalog, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Bamboo – March Material of the Month
2. 

   Leather – February material of the month
3. 

   Felt – Material of November
4. 

   Staining wood sheet materials — 7 different woods, 6 different stains

Double-take for double-sidedWhen Auckland jeweller Kirsten Turnbull discovered that she had a creative streak, she started looking for ways of making her products look professional.  School craft fair aesthetics have their place in the world, but the goal was to move beyond that.  After some extensive searching, Kirsten came across Ponoko and two years later she is still using the service to laser cut the bases for all her Cheek Pinchy jewelry.

Now instead of hand cutting balsa wood and then sanding and staining it, Kirsten opts for laser cut beech and bamboo which produce a cleaner finish and are generally much more durable and solid materials than the lightweight balsa.  The shift to digifabbing has allowed the artist to extend her range to include necklaces, earrings, rings, cufflinks as well as the initial selection of brooches.At first glance, the jewelry pieces are a window into what could be termed as contemporary vintage elegance.  The simple geometric shapes are adorned with nostalgic images taken from vintage books, often children’s (apparently no children are harmed in this exercise).  These visually rich publications are what inspires Kirsten’s range, and she is always on the lookout for more.

The assembly process, as with most jewelry, requires patience.  Kirsten adheres the selected images to the plywood bases and applies several glaze coats before attaching the findings.

One of the elements that differentiates Cheek Pinchy designs from many others, is the laser engraved design detail on the back of each piece.  The patterns are intended to add another level of interest when the jewellery swings around.

Posted in Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Maker Stories, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Jewelry by Black Swan Design
2. For everyone who wants a complete step-b

   How to make laser-cut jewelry for Valentine’s Day
3. 

   The Business of Jewelry
4. 

   Lynne MacLachlan’s Dynamic Laser Cut Jewelry

Making Arduino look beautiful.

Many amazing projects have been made with Arduino, but “beautiful” is usually not the first word that springs to mind. Even when electronics are used in a fashion-specific context, the aesthetics tends towards a high-tech Star Trek kind of feel, so it particularly impressive to see someone achieve a completely different, more traditionally feminine, aesthetic.

The Crystal Necklace by Sylvia Yang uses a LilyPad Arduino, which is specifically designed for integration with textiles, along with LEDs and a variety of traditional jewelry components.
(more…)

Posted in Hardware, Jewellery, Taylor Gilbert by Taylor Gilbert | Comments are off for this post

Related posts:

1. 

   dittoditto’s Necklace Walks in Single File
2. 

   Arduino 1.0 programming environment and language released
3. 

   Teagueduino: the snap-and-go Arduino
4. 

   Arduino Shield List

Exploring form and space in 3D printed jewelryTexan designer Melissa Borrell has an interest in sculptural geometry, and the aesthetic is evident in much of her work.  We’ve already featured some of her work on the blog.  She’s certainly not new to digital making and has worked with fabricators on material experiments for various projects.  Her work has been recognized by Enterpreneur magazine, where her company Melissa Borrell Design was named as one of the “100 Brilliant Companies to Watch” in 2010.

Currently Melissa uses Personal Factory as part of the fabrication process for her jewelry.  Initially she experimented with laser cutting, producing a lace neckpiece out of felt.  Most recently, her focus has been on creating 3D printed pieces that reflect a strong formalist approach.  The jewelry is printed in Durable Plastic, then the pieces are dyed with fabric dye and finished with findings and sometime silver and gold elements.  Melissa’s choice of the material is very deliberate:

I love it because I can create things that are too delicate to cast in traditional jewelry making techniques or make things that are linked or have moving parts that are made all in one piece.  I think this is very exciting and has so much potential!

A few words from the designer after the jump:

(more…)

Posted in 3D Printing, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Maker Stories, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Wearable flora
2. 

   Centerview: Melissa Borrell – Jewelry Designer
3. 

   Movement through geometry — laser-engraved and hand-inked artwork
4. 

   Explorations in Digital Fabrication by Arthur Hash

Retail Ready with Little MisoPerth jeweller Janice Law branched out from graphic design and illustration when she came across Ponoko and realised the potential of making with Personal Factory.  Step by step, the new hobby turned into a small business – Little Miso.  The acrylics and cherry veneer are turned into spirited words, quirky characters and little tokens of happiness that are designed to make people smile.

Getting Started

What made you decide to start your own business? I never intended to start my own business, but I’ve always been interested in making, designing and creating things. It just happened as a natural progression – from wanting to make a piece of jewellery for myself, to launching collections and seeing people wear them.

How did you decide on jewellery? At the time when laser cut jewellery was just starting to grow, I stumbled upon Ponoko.  I had a few ideas on my mind that I was searching for myself, so I thought why not just make it?  Jewellery has come to be a really versatile medium. It can be made from so many different materials, shapes, sizes and colours, and suit someone that’s 5 years old or 55 years old.

What skills did you already have when you started your business and what did you have to learn? I studied advertising and graphic design, so already knew how to use vector programs, use photoshop and basic photography. My passion for illustration and design also helped with branding, packaging and marketing the products.  Getting into the real business / admin side of things was the hardest – I still struggle every time tax time rolls around.More from Janice on running her business after the jump:

(more…)

Posted in Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Small Business Stories, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with jewelry designer Kimono Reincarnate
2. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with eco-jewelry designer Leslie Yang
3. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with accessories designer John Patterson
4. 

   Small Business Stories: interview with clock designer Maiko Kuzinishi

Seriously, it’s not just flooring material. Bamboo, either in laminate form or as plywood has been a popular material choice in interior finishes since the 90’s.  The sustainable growing and harvesting reputation has aided bamboo’s popularity, and it’s now featured more and more in product design.

The wood products’ prominent grain and warm hues make it stand out from a myriad of other plywoods and timber laminates.  Bamboo also laser cuts beautifully and is one of the most popular material choices in Ponoko US and NZ.  Both hubs offer different thicknesses of bamboo in plywood and natural laminate form.

Get a whole lot of bamboo inspiration after the jump:

(more…)

Posted in Functional Art + Objects, Furniture + Lighting, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Materials Catalog, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Veneer MDF – April Material of the Month
2. 

   Leather – February material of the month
3. 

   Styrene – May Material of the Month
4. 

   Bamboo Love

Design passion is when design is both your day job and your after hours hobby.

By day, Colin is a Product Designer.  Outside of work his occupation is never far away, but in a very dissimilar way to the mass production clockwork.  When it comes to making stuff, his creative background isn’t exactly glue and popsicle sticks.  Working for a large kitchen gadget manufacturer that creates mass-consumer products, Colin gets a serious daily dose of 3D printing and dealing with factories for mass manufacturing.  In his spare time, his design persona is entirely different.  Getting to design his OWN products, means the focus shifts to small scale, on demand fabrication, variety of [non-plastic] materials, and often, quite involved artisan finishing.

Colin’s designs have a strong overall graphic element and feature a clear emphasis on form using two-dimensional laser cut shapes.  The laser cut products range from the Cuffmodern leather jewelry to homeware, such as clocks and vases made from bamboo. When it comes to his own designs, Colin prefers materials that age well: leather, brass, bamboo and wood.  Time permitting, CNC routing is the next fabbing process to experiment with in the near future.

The slot-together homeware products are designed to require minimal finishing.  The dyeing of the leather jewelry is more intensive in that regard, and Colin considers this part to be a soothing, hands on past time of tactile engagement, contrasted with the daily grind of eye watering digital work.  The therapy of using hands on something other than the keyboard is something many makers can relate to.

More from Colin after the jump:

(more…)

Posted in Functional Art + Objects, Jewellery, Laser Cutting, Maker Stories, Yana Skaler by yana | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

Related posts:

1. 

   Designing for San Francisco
2. 

   3D-printed Reusable Water Filter
3. 

   Not Your Usual Clock
4. 

   Inspired by Museum Collections