Meet the designer: Eric van Straaten
Today we offer you an in-depth look into one of our favorite designers: Eric van Straaten. His multicolor magic has continuously pushed the technology to its limits and has attracted countless of enthusiastic crowds to admire it. Therefore it comes as no surprise that we were more than happy to receive such a deep look into the mind behind the artist. It is with great pleasure that we present you with Eric’s deepest thoughts, feelings and visions told in his own words.
I don’t really think you need much of an introduction anymore as you ‘ve made quite a name for yourself at i.materialise, but what we would like to know is a bit about your background. Tell us a bit about the boy that became the man…
I was born in 1969 in the Dutch city of Leiden and grew up in Haarlem. From the age of about 17 I have always wanted to be an ‘artist’, and after a career that we call in Dutch ’12 trades, 13 accidents’ (more or less successful photographer, musician, actor, journalist, entrepren
Materialising Minecraft Dreams
Today we would like to highlight the work of one of our dear colleagues at Materialise called Sander. He’s a fan of Minecraft and happens to work at a 3D printing company so the following was obviously going to happen someday… With help of a software solution called Mineways, Sander was able to create a bridge between his creations in Minecraft and our 3D printers. The results and Sander’s story can be seen below.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Who is Sander?
I’m a software engineer working for Materialise. In my free time I’m involved in several music activities and I spend quite some time behind my PC programming and playing games.
How did you discover 3D printing?
My current employment brought me into contact with 3D printing. I was not exposed to it before then.
What brought you to Minecraft and which realms do you command in there?
It is kind of strange but my cynicism brought me to Minecraft. When I heard about it first I didn’t believe such a simpl
A creative journey by the students of Sint Lucas Antwerp
Back in February we received a visit from some students of the Sint Lucas Art School in Antwerp as part of their creative design week. The students formed part of first and second bachelor year jewelry design courses and got introduced to the possibilities of 3D printing. They were then given an external 3-day workshop by guest-teacher Fabien Franzen to teach and guide them with Moi 3D: an easy to use CAD design package. With their new-found knowledge the students could now start transforming their traditional works of art into 3D designs that would eventually be 3D printed at i.materialise.
Their objective was to evolve their traditional designs from a previous assignment into a 3D printed version of it. The end result was a collection of miniature kitchen and table appliances that was brought forth as a unified collection.
All the above pictures were taken by photographers Bart Vermaercke and Roger Laute.
As for those of you who like to work with poly
Multicolor as part of a bigger Story
Multicolor is a wonderful material to use for its wide range of colors but many designers also tend to use it for different purposes. Take the work of Canadian designers Digital Statues as example. Their work gets 3D printed in monochrome multicolor which looks a bit like polyamide when it comes out the machines. These sculptures are then hand-painted to accentuate and highlight the facial features. Examples of this can be seen in the images below.
To find out more about the great services that Digital Statues provide you can visit their website at www.digitalstatues.com.
A similar process is applied by Dutch artist Ilse Vermeulen who designed the adorable Mr. Collodi (pictured below) and went as far as dressing him up with custom made clothing. Again here you’ll see that she got her model 3D printed in monochrome multicolor and sprayed it afterwards.
To see more of Ilse Vermeulen’s creative work you can visit her website at www.ilsevermeulen.nl.
So as you can s
An upcoming book and a major solo exhibition by Iris van Herpen around the corner
Iris van Herpen is a Dutch fashion designer that needs little to no introduction on this blog due to her immense popularity. We have covered her wonderful 3D printed work of art several times and her escapism dress has even been named one of the Best 50 Inventions of 2011 by TIME Magazine.
With that said, it comes as no surprise that countless people would love to see her work up close and so the great thing is that now you can! Iris van Herpen will be holding her first major solo exhibition at The Groninger Museum in The Netherlands. It will be running from the 24th of March until the 23th of September of 2012. That’s a full six-month period!
To accompany the exbibition, the first book on Iris van Herpen will be published. This volume contains an overview of all her collections up to the present, as well as am essay by fashion journalist Jean Paul Cauvin and a foreword by the curators.
So if any of you are planning a trip to The Netherlands between these dates, make sure
TIME Magazine names Iris van Herpen’s 3D printed dress one of the 50 Best Inventions of the 2011
THE 3-D-PRINTED DRESS
92 CENTIMETERS | Combining design with technology, Dutch couturier Iris Van Herpen’s fantastical dresses are initially planned in Photoshop. She then works with an architect to develop a 3-D model, which is printed onto a polymer over the course of a week, resulting in a ready-to-wear dress that is an exact replica of the original sketched version. Van Herpen — who recently designed the dress Bjrk wears on the cover of her new album, Biophilia — presented her printed dresses during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week this January.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2099708,00.html#ixzz1odicWIYc By TIME Magazine
2011 was a lovely year for 3D printing, especially when TIME Magazine decided to add Iris van Herpen‘s escapism dress to their list of 50 best inventions of the year. This lovely work of art was revealed during the haute couture week in Paris Spring Summer 2011 as part of her 3D printed Escapism couture collection. It rapidly
Decorate your bookcase with adorable little monsters
Today I would like to highlight one of my favorite projects at i.materialise: Monja‘s adorable letter eaters. Not only do they look great (printed in multicolor), but they make your book collection look even better. And if that wasn’t enough… you can even add your own custom text (up to 10 characters per creature) to them. There are three versions that you can choose from and for only €99 (plus VAT and transport) and receive a set of two creatures like seen on the pictures below.
Can’t wait to have a nice set of your own? Get started on your own letter eater set right here!
The 3D prints of the M HKA Challenge are now in the museum
When we announced the winners of the M HKA Design Challenge, we also mentioned that they would be exhibited at the M HKA museum in Antwerp from Dec 19th until Dec 29th. So for those of you who won’t be in the region of Antwerp during the holiday period, we’ve decided to share these lovely pictures of the 3D prints.
My House by 11 year old Kristof van Loock
Holes by designer Luigi Vaghi
Facebooked by teacher/designer of de Kunsthumaniora Filip Verreyke
Facebooked by teacher/designer of de Kunsthumaniora Filip Verreyke
My M KHA Legs by Matthew Pauwels
Senne001 by student of de Kunsthumaniora Senne Roekens
Senne001 by student of de Kunsthumaniora Senne Roekens
And for those of you who will be in the region of Antwerp during the holidays, don’t hesitate to visit the M HKA museum to see the works in person. They always look better up close!
Of course if you like participating in design challenges and just missed this one, no worries because we still have th
How to Win the Spotlight in a Museum
In September we organized a unique design challenge with the Antwerp based museum of M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp). You could participate as a youngster or beginner, as an illustrative artist or as a 3D designer. With that said and the information out in the open, our brave challengers got their gloves on and got to it. After long hours of working on their designs, we received the entries from our participants ready for judging time! And so, together with a judging panel of the M HKA museum we came to a unified decision on the winners of this challenge.
With well-deserved congratulations, we present to you their works of art that will be on display at the M HKA from the 19th until the 29th of December.
For the category of Designers
For the category of Youngster & Beginners
For the category of Illustrative Artists
So there you have it ladies and gentlemen and as usual we’d like to thank all of the participants for their lovely entr
Using 3D Printing to Entertain your Ears
You’ve seen it with your own eyes, you’ve felt it in your hands, but have you heard what 3D printing is capable of?
For those of you who don’t know him already, let me introduce you to Erec: a man who creates wonderful 3D printed flutes in his spare time. He offers his custom made flutes for sale on his website Cutting Edge Flutes and also provides the service of making them food safe.
The following video will you show you one of his flutes that got printed at i.materialise in multicolor.
More of Erec”s work can be seen on his YouTube account and if you too would like to design something in multicolor, stay tuned cuss next week we”ll discuss the best tips and tricks of this great material.
