This weekend Team Faberdashery are at the 3D Printshow, London’s first expo dedicated to the world of digital manufacturing.

Day one highlights ~

Wow, what an awesome 1st day! There was a good mix of companies- covering everything from the arts, very high end industrial products, to the personal 3d printing market. There was a great buzz around Ultimaker’s stand, where finished prints were being ‘ejected’ out of machines towards the amazed onlookers. The charismatic Brook Drumm of printrbot showed their range of compact and foldable ‘Jr’ machines, that are super cute and desireable. When I approached Formlabs, the crowd was 4 people deep (!), so hope to get hands-on tomorrow.

What really excited me was the many smaller groups and individuals I chatted with. Peter Goodwin, director at Artbot, is looking to use 3D printing to enable new possibilities in Kinetic Art following BEAM principles. I can’t wait to see these creations! It was really inspiring to meet printcraft, who passionately demoed 3d prints being pulled from their custom Minecraft server. Watching how accessible this gaming environment makes content creation to young people, highlighted the key challenges and opportunities in the industry. Equally, the team from Black Country Atelier were brimming with enthusiasm, bringing this technology into education to empower the next generation of makers.

Two more days of fabbing fun ahead!…

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.

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)