i.materialised the Skiwi lamp
At i.materialise we take this 3D printing thing rather seriously. In order to test ourselves we asked the 900 Materialise employees to submit their designs and tell us what they could make if they could 3D print anything they wanted. We ended up 3D printing 150 of our colleague’s dream products. At an a average cost of 500 Euro per project this was a considerable investment for us as a company. But, the huge variety helped prepare us for your designs however. In a recurring segment on the blog I will let our colleagues present their own dream projects in their own words.
First of is Tom Cluckers’ story of his 3D printed Skiwi lampshade.
“It took me 12 years to go to New Zealand. A lot of excuses popped up during the years. Too expensive, too far, can not go long enough, etc. Until you move to Malaysia. Suddenly far gets another meaning and New Zealand gets closer too.
Beginning of 2009, Tine and I went there for about three weeks to look at the scenery of the Northern and Southern Island. One of the first things we saw was the Tongariro National Park. After a day of hiking we saw a funny roadsign on the way back to our motel.
Since it was too dark and too clouded, I didn”t take a picture of it at that moment. Something that happens a lot to a photographer. You take hundreds of pictures with your eyes, and regret not taking them with your camera instead. With this “skiwi” the same thing happened. We travelled further to the South without the picture on my compact flash.
After 2,5 weeks of me talking about the missed picture, we (or maybe better I) decided to make a detour of about 300 kilometers to take this picture in the end. At that moment I had to promise Tine that I would at least do something special with it.I decided to make a lamp shade based on one of my pictures, something I wanted to do since I started with my photography passion.
This lamp shade will be our way to remember an unforgettable holiday.”
— Tom Cluckers
