We are excited to announce Faberdashery filament is available to buy at the iMakr store in London. This is pretty big for us, as it is the first time we have put our filament into a physical retail space.

The store is located in central London and occupys 2,500 square feet across two floors making it the largest 3D print store in the world. Last night Faberdashery was at the grand opening. It was great to feel the buzz and excitement in the store as people took in the variety of printers, materials and accessories on offer.

We are excited by the chance to give greater accessibility to our filament. So come and see touch and smell Faberdashery at the store!

Kuma Crafts caught our eye recently with their gorgeous 3D printed jewellery. The husband and wife team specialize in jewellery, apparel and plushes inspired by Japanese culture. Until recently Kuma Crafts produced most of their jewellery using layered acrylic. However when they realised the potential of 3D printing they decided to incorporate it into their production techniques. A lot of work has gone into getting the jewelllery to the high standards Kuma Crafts have set for their products.

Stan Velijev of Kuma Crafts explained ‘After a lot of experimentation and tweaking, we finally have consistent high quality prints that we’re happy to sell. Faberdashery’s PLA is the only one we’ve found of high enough quality to be used for jewellery. The gold has just the right shine with a little sparkle, and the diameter is of extremely even consistency so we never have filament jams or irregularities in smooth surfaces. Faberdashery makes a premium product which yields premium results.’

Thanks Stan! We love what you have done with our filament and can’t wait to see what you do next.

Here’s a beautiful story.

Simon and Steph got married this summer. They wanted to make their wedding favours really personal to them. What better way to do this than by 3D printing them!

We’ll let them explain it in their own words:

We have been playing with the printers for around a year and were impressed with the capability and versatility of them. When we were looking into the cost of favour boxes they turned out to be pretty expensive and with the cost of everything else we decided to try and make our own. We found the design of the box on Thingiverse and sweets to go inside that we had personalised with our names and dates of the wedding to make them unique. Our past experiences with white had either come out slightly see-through or with a yellowy tinge. The Faberdashery Arctic White seemed like a perfect option. It was completely pure and exactly what we wanted-matching perfectly with the brilliant white decor. At the wedding lots of the guest said they were amazing and asked where we had got the boxes from – they were completely in awe when we said we had made them! We would just like to thank you for allowing us to have this extra wow factor on our special day!

Simon and Steph

As you can see, the results were stunning. Thanks Simon and Steph for sharing your story with us.

The KamerMaker is the world’s first movable 3D print pavillion. Capable of 3D printing entire rooms from PLA, this is one of the biggest printers around. It has an epic build size of 2x2x3.5m! The project is a collaboration between DUS architects and Ultimaker Ltd and is purposely open source. From 2013 onwards, the KamerMaker will travel to different locations in the Netherlands and beyond.

We were lucky enough to be at the launch party in Amsterdam last weekend. The event had a real block party feel with great community interaction. We got a fantastic view from inside of the machine. Yes, that’s right, you can climb inside it! Printing this big is no easy task. Although the machine is driven essentially by standard Ultimaker electronics with the beating heart of an Arduino (plus some industrial stepper drivers) feeding the plastic in requires some innovative solutions. A mini-extruder (from xtrution.com) feeds the KamerMaker with molten plastic. Thermoplastic granules are fed in the top, melted and extruded along a monstrous ‘bowden’ tube to the print head. The tube is heated PTFE with steel braiding. It is an elegant solution with pretty awesome results. The design of the machine is really beautiful, with mirrored, chameleon stainless steel finish, fitting inside a standard shipping container.

It was really inspiring to see a concept put into action. Big dreams are great. Making them a reality is even better. Already we are seeing huge potential for the KamerMaker. We would love to know your thoughts. If you could print this big, what would you print?

To see more images of the mighty KamerMaker take a look at our Flickr stream.

Something we love about PLA for 3d printing, is its translucency. PLA pure and natural is semi-transparent, with a gorgeous crystalline effect. It produces stunning 3d prints that other materials can’t achieve. Here are some shining examples!

Sim City Capitol Ambient Light model by TopperDEL

A project that came onto our radar recently is the Sim City Capitol Ambient Light model by TopperDEL which takes the Capitol Building on Thingiverse from Skimbal’s Sim City 2000 Tabletop Play Set and turns it into a stunning colour-shifting tabletop lamp. TopperDEL used colour changing LEDs to create ambient light change effects and printed the model in Faberdashery Crystal Clear PLA. The outcome is a real design centrepiece. He’s included detailed instructions on how he printed his Capitol Building, focussing especially on the challenge of hollow printing. TopperDEL says he has plans to make more LED lamps. We’ll be watching out with excitement for his next cool idea.

Grayscale Dualstrusion Poster by tbuser

The other fantastic project that plays with transparent qualities is the Grayscale Dualstrusion Poster by Thingiverse superstar tbuser. His design experiments with the variation in transparency according to print thickness. He created this iconic poster through simple layering. Genius!

3D printing Surface Treatments – PLA iPhone Case by norcalbarney

Of course we couldn’t blog about PLA translucency experiments without mentioning norcalbarney‘s magnificent iphone cases. What can we say? Exceptional use of the Hilbert Curve!

At Faberdashery we’ve just launched our new and improved Jade Green. This completes our current collection of translucent PLA colours. So whether you’re thinking light-up bunnies, awesome self-portraits, mojioto green shot glasses or just some simple jewellery then reach for the translucents.

It’s Friday, and we wanted to share a little inspiration with you. Here’s some of the cool stuff people have been doing with Faberdashery filament this week ~

Angry Birds by MotoBarsteward.

Parametric Rings by Yuleblinker.

Blockbot by Richard Gain and a great little video to go with it.

Happy Friday all!

This month we’re introducing two new colours and pitching them against each other in an epic battle. On the one side we have Earl Grey, an industrial strength grey worthy of any Robot overlord. On the other side comes Pearly White, an ethereal pearlescent filament made from essence of Unicorn. These titans will go head to head in a battle of fabbing. Can Robot Toy defeat Unicorn Horn? Will the toy robot project succumb to a pink haired unicorn? Is Puzzled Robot a match for Unicorn Logo? In the clash of colours who will come out on top? You decide!

Credits: tekeian, videan42, bryanbrutherford, guru, relet, polymaker

There’s a mysterious glow around Faberdashery Towers… is it just the full moon?… or something altogether more sinister, like our ultra eerie Glowbug Yellow glow-in-the-dark filament.

Fab yourself a Spook-tacular Halloween with a glowing Ghost Toy by tc_fea, or  perhaps a screaming skull? We love the idea of giant, luminous creepy crawlies like Antona’s Big Spider and Zomboe’s Snake. Of course prints don’t have to be classically scary… until the lights go out! Glowbug PLA turns the cutesiest of prints into sinister spooky objects, like RichRap’s glowing print of Roy the Bunny. Frankly, we wouldn’t mess with him! So what will you create… Trick or Treat ?

Wow! What a first couple of months it’s been! We’ve shipped filament across the world- from Sydney to Sweden, from New York to the Netherlands, our PLA has travelled to almost every continent. Our materials have been spotted in some awesome places like the Brighton Maker Faire; at the V&A Museum’s new show ‘The Power of Making‘; The DML at Bath’s Innovation Centre and various RepRap meet-ups.

We’ve been amazed by the response from the community and would like to say a massive Thanks! We love the fantastic stuff that you’ve been printing with Faberdashery PLA. Check out the Cups from NYC Designer, RichRap’s Traditional Fan and Heart Box, Smartroad’s fab Dyson hack and Pia Tubert’s elegant pliers. Many thanks to the blogs that also featured us, including Fabbaloo, SolidSmack, Ponoko and others.

Finally, we have had a new addition to the Faberdashery family – Baby Rose. She is bringing a lot of joy to the Faberdashery household – as well as some sleepless nights .

So thanks all for your support and fabbing love! We’re currently working on extending our range. Watch this space for more news.

Photo credit: RichRap.

Imagine the scenario – you and your RepRap / Makerbot are washed up on a desert island. Luckily you salvaged a laptop, car battery and a good supply of filament alongside your 3D printer. What do you print to survive? We trawled  Thingiverse, for the ultimate .stl files for desert island living.

Shelter from the blazing sun? No problem! Print out the fantastic Dome Connectors by c60 grab some bamboo, and make yourself a geodesic dome. Next get hydrated with a Bottle by aubenc to collect your water, then swig it in style with Joris’ beautifully faceted low res hi quality cup. You may be stuck on a desert island but there’s no need to eat with fingers. Print yourself the essential Sporknife by freakinhuge and chow down on that mango. Finally, attract the attention of passing boats with Zaggo’s classic Whistle.

Of course, some of us would be happily stuck on a desert island with just a 3D printer . So you could always just while away the time with the awesome Chess set I by cbiffle.

What design files would you 3D print to survive?

Featured image by HeyDanielle (Flickr)