Matthew Compeau and Biying Miao are architects and entrepreneurs who use The Replicator to bring their designs to life, including the fantastic jewelry from their latest project Hot Pop Factory. We asked them why they use a MakerBot, and they whipped up a post for us to share right here on this blog.

Hot Pop Factory’s collection of 3D Printed jewelry celebrates the unique texture of 3D Printed objects. The three-piece collection was designed using Rhino3D and Grasshopper and then fabricated with our MakerBot Replicator. Coming from an architectural background – a profession in which the tools and technology for dreaming up amazing designs are progressing much faster than the budgets and construction methods needed to build them, we realized that our MakerBot provided an amazing creative outlet to scale down those ideas and bring them to life in way that wouldn’t be possible with other fabrication methods.

Since it first started shipping earlier this year, we’ve been using the Replicator non-stop. After several months of experimenting with its strengths and limitations, we’ve been able to develop a set of striking designs that show off the stratified beauty inherent to the additive manufacturing process. During this time, The Replicator completely changed the way we design. Instead of iterating our designs through sketches and rough models, The Replicator lets us produce an unlimited number of full-size prototypes that we can touch and wear at every stage of the design process. The result was a visceral understanding of how each piece is formed that allowed us to tweak every detail in order to help bring out their true beauty.

As excited as we were about The Replicator as a design tool, we are equally passionate about its role in the future of personal manufacturing. As young designers we don’t have the resources that would normally be required to bring a product like this to market. Our MakerBot has empowered us to take full ownership of the design and manufacturing process. Instead of investing tens of thousands of dollars and trying to forge relationships with suppliers and fabrications, we can manage the entire process — from design, to fabrication, to distribution — from our living room. It’s an exhilarating feeling to have so much control over a project we’re so passionate about. We hope that as our business grows, we can empower others in the same way, by providing tools that allow them to personalize each piece for custom manufacturing.

Needless to say, working on this project has already been an exciting journey. We hope that you’ll join us as the experience continues to unfold at www.HotPopFactory.com.

Tonight, MakerBot will host a very special MUGNY (MakerBot User Group NYC) meeting at the beautiful Marymount School Fifth Avenue Campus right across from the Met Museum, preceded by a RSVP-only walking tour through the Met with a handful of the artists who participated in the Met MakerBot Hackathon.

While the free Met Tour event is ”sold out” at this point, I do want to remind those who managed to reserve a ticket that the Walking Tour guests need to check in with me (Matt Griffin) on the left hand side of the Met lobby (near the Greek/Roman entrance) just before 5:30pm to get your Met pin and be ready for the tour to depart — promptly at 5:30pm.

Glenn Berry will be handling the check-in list at the Marymount School starting at 6:00pm across the street. After the Walking Tour rejoins the reception, MakerBot Operators, Thingiverse Makers, and the curious public will be treated to refreshments, snacks, the latest community show-and-tell, and inspiring keynote talks featuring the Met MakerBot Hackathon and the Capture Your Town project.

MakerBot User Group meetings are monthly meet ups where members of our world-wide community get together locally to share what they have been up to with their MakerBots. The events typically include a featured guest or keynote arranged beforehand, and tend to attract a large crowd of those from the general public as well as those actively involved with MakerBot and Thingiverse — all are welcome!

And here’s a sneak preview of the mini-master class in casting to be given tonight by 3D designer and jeweler Jason Bakutis. The work he is bringing will drop some jaws, and offer all of those curious about creating replicas of physical objects a few new routes for finishing!

Remain calm. This is just a video of adorable, 3D-modeling-and-3D-printing-savvy children designing a pendant in Tinkercad and printing it on a MakerBot Replicator. While surrounded by copies of Arduino Cookbook. So I suppose the phrase Happy Monday means something now.

For more videos from Osamu Iwasaki’s, which pretty much run the gamut of everything, here’s his website.

File under: one of those times when various people’s talents spontaneously merge to create something really nice

Subfolder: but only because the tools have been democratized to the point that any willing hobbyist can get at them

3D printing is a part of almost everything we do here at MakerBot, but it is not the only thing. With so many maker mentalities around, other genres are bound to be explored. Two of my colleagues here at MakerBot HQ recently combined forces on a nice project that brought 3D printing on a MakerBot in contact with textiles and fashion design.

One of our talented young team members, Tatyana, had an idea for a MakerBot dress. Why not? The logo could certainly make for a nice print. That’s precisely what one of our other staff members thought. Tony worked up a vector image of the logo in Photoshop, transferred it to a grid pattern in Illustrator, and decided to try his hand at printing the textiles. This step of the process was made possible by our friends at Gowanus Print Lab, the same studio where the MakerBot gift bags came to life. As this was Tony’s first go at screening a repeating pattern, there were naturally some small slipups.

Again, combining talents came in handy. Carina Cid of BlackRabbitNYC did an expert job of cutting the fabric into a dress that highlights the print in the right way.

Enter accessories. Carina thought up some jewelry options, but materializing them required another set of skills. Tony 3D modeled the pieces to make them  printable on a MakerBot and then let ‘er rip. The finished necklace hangs perfectly above the dress, don’t you think?

As Tatyana and Tony are between them neither model nor photographer, they employed two more friends in the project. Those credits go to model Paige Morgan and MakerBot TV’s own Annelise Jeske.

What have you made and shared today?

Bathtoy by Request!

After explaining Thing-A-Day to my daughter, I asked her what she would like me to design for her for day 2. Answer: A sailboat for the bathtub.

Tool for a Working Artist!

Last night, my wife needed a circle template for an art project she was doing. This took about 15 minutes to make in total, from design to finished product. And that is why 3D printing is awesome.

Jewelry (and Tool for Future Jewelry)!

This design is intended to be an envelope to be boolean used (intersection) with other textured designs, we’ll see….

Tool for Learning About Clocks!

I figured this tool might be useful for the MakerBot Clock Makers project and for educators and students looking to explore basic gear mechanics.  (I am spending time each day designing new attachments for it.)

Keep checking back to see what other Thing-A-Day participants are sharing on Thingiverse — and get out there and make some stuff.

The Stretchy Bracelet by emmet and the Chunky Bracelet by tinkerbelle were featured in the Las Vegas Fashionware show at the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas this week!

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