LJS gets an insight into 3D Printing
Last month groups of LJS students were lucky enough to secure a place on our visit to a local 3D printing company. ‘My Mini Factory’ which launched in 2013, is the world’s leading curated social platform for 3D Printable objects. The community platform connects 3D Designers, makers, users and brands. For more information about the company please click here: https://www.myminifactory.com/
The tour of the studio was absolutely fascinating and we were given a great insight into how the 3D printing world works. Students (and lucky staff representatives) were shown lots of different 3D printed jewellery masters in various resins, along with the finished cast pieces. Max (our guide from My Mini Factory) explained the process of getting from a digital design file to a finished piece of jewellery.
One student, Nadia Thomas ( http://www.chamareldesigns.com ) was asked to provide two examples of her work in order to be reproduced with a 3D printer. A demonstration was given of the ‘scanning’ process. This essentially was a 360 degree photo of the object which was converted into a digital file ready for retouching and printing.
The images below show the 3D printed versions and Nadia’s original sterling silver masters.
We got lots of great feedback from the students that attended and many have since said that they would love to give it a go for their own work. We still love our jewellery to be handmade but would definitely be open to experimenting with this exciting technology. We would love to hear your thoughts or experiences of 3D printing.