Art Info wrote a very cool piece on what 3D printing means, not only for artists and designers, but for everyone in the world. The article featured MakerBot’s collaboration with fashion designer, Asher Levine, who describes how 3D printing makes prototyping easier:

“The fashion industry is stuck in this archaic method of manufacturing, while we’re on the cusp of a new method,” Levine told us. He also let us in on a secret: “I can’t sketch sunglasses.” Instead, he molded models from clay and subtly tweaked the designs using a CAD program — “move this in a bit, move this out a bit, make it a quarter-of-an-inch shorter” — input them into his Replicator, and had a revised version in just nine hours — more quickly, efficiently, and cheaply than the traditional method. The machine took the design and extruded melted ABS plastic through a nozzle onto a platform, building the sunglasses layer by layer via FDM (think ’90s, line-by-line dot-matrix printers, but in three dimensions). Thanks to Thingiverse, Makerbot’s open source website, you can actually download Levine’s designs and make them at home — the only catch is that it’s BYOMB. Bring your own MakerBot.”

The writer also paid a visit to Material ConneXion’s and the article includes a slideshow of 3D-printed objects from the Print/3D exhibition.

Read the full article here!

Bre talks to BoingBoing about the community-created clock he demoed at TED 2012. 

Earlier this week, Bre and 24 of his fellow-TED-Fellows inspired and delighted attendees of the TED Conference 2012, where the world’s boldest and brightest gathered in Long Beach, California. “This year–there’s a spirit of solutions in the air,” wrote Forbes’ Steven Rosenbaum, who listed Bre’s talk on the power of collaborative innovation as one of four ‘earthshaking’ moments from this year’s event.

“We may really be printing out everything we need in the future,” gushed Mariella Moon of Tecca. Moon’s list of 11 Radical Ideas Worth Spreading From Ted 2012 also includes autonomous flying robots, electronic toy kits, a brain recording kit, and a ‘clip from TED2023′  imagined by Ridley Scott in the much-anticipated Prometheus.

Finally, GOOD: education asks, If Schools Kill Creativity, Can Toys Bring it Back to Life? Heck yeah! Here at MakerBot, we’re firm believers in the learning power of play-time. Give a kid a Replicator, and she can make the stuff of her imagination come to life. She can learn science, mechanics, and problem-solving while creating awesome toys of her own invention. Most importantly, she can discover  that nothing is impossible – all she needs is her mind, her MakerBot, and a little help from her friends.

Roger Yu explains the explosive growth of 3D printing among entrepreneurs and hobbyists in USA TODAY Tech.

Bonus: This awesome video interview with Bre Pettis from inside the Botcave!

Crain’s New York Business just featured MakerBot in an article on the growing presence of 3D printing in NYC. The story looks at the expansion of the industry and the potential that it offers the city.

A sneak peek from the article: “The technology is transforming industries such as jewelry-making, medical devices and architecture. New York City, with its robust design trade, may be a natural home for 3-D printing. Indeed, the Bloomberg administration is betting that the technology will create new businesses and help existing ones be innovative and more competitive.”

The folks from CBS News came by the BotFarm last week and took some photos for this awesome slideshow! Scroll through to see a collection of some of our favorite MakerBotted objects and the Replicators and Thing-O-Matics in action.

The press are weighing in on MakerBot’s NYFW collaboration with Asher Levine…

CNN’s Laurie Segall says “3D printed glasses are Fashion Week’s hottest accessory” - Read the article

MTV Style exclaims “Yay, 3D printing for everyone!” – Read the article

BlackBook Magazine calls The Replicator a “highlight of the show” – Read the article

Portfolio.com ponders, “Can 3-D printers revolutionize fashion?” – Read the article

Pick up this week’s issue of NY Mag to see MakerBot as one of the items featured in the Approval Matrix. Project Shellter’s 3D-printed hermit crab shells made it into the territory between highbrow and brilliant, alongside some other pretty awesome things!

Nightline co-anchor, Bill Weir, visited MakerBot HQ earlier this week for an episode of his ABC News/Yahoo web series This Could Be Big. Watch the video above to see what happens when Bill meets Bre (Hint: They talk about The Replicator, open source, Thingiverse, and The Future!)

In case you missed it (or like me, don’t have a TV), check out The MakerBot Replicator on this morning’s episode of Live! with Kelly. TWiT’s Leo Laporte shows Kelly Ripa “the future”… and she likes it!

Tune in to your local ABC station tomorrow, Friday, February 3rd to see MakerBot featured on Live! with Kelly. TWiT’s Leo Laporte will be showing Kelly Ripa and co-host D.L. Hughley his favorite items from CES.

Check out this video interview of Bre talking to Leo Laporte during CES for TWiT’s Triangulation.