When Dreams are Materialised

Ritik Mehta

Meet Ritik, an 11 year old young man with a creative heart and dreams of a 3D printed world. Our first encounter with Ritik was at TEDxKids in Brussels a year ago. It was on that day that Ritik made his first contact with 3D printing and it became quite clear that it was like love at first sight. After receiving an introduction, Ritik’s creative mind began to work overtime. “Could I print an iPod? Or what about a car?” he thought to himself. The answer to his question was eventually found in creating a pair of 3D printable glasses. With a fixed idea in mind, Ritik now started the design process in an easy to use software application called 3DTin.

Little did he know that his design would eventually make its way to the Antwerp based M HKA Museum where it would be exhibited to demonstrate what an 11 year old kid could do with this innovative technology.

The famous Ritik glasses

But Ritik’s story doesn’t end there. After his first contact with his new passion, Ritik received the great news of his father Deepak that a desktop 3D printer was on its way to their home. Ritik got introduced to his first Makerbot, the 3D printer that made him just that extra bit more popular amongst his friends at school. It didn’t take long before Ritik started 3D printing fun little things for his classmates. For Halloween, Ritik asked his father to help him get some fun props 3D printed to take to school. His father Deepak knew that it would take a long time to design something for Halloween so he showed his son how he could download some existing models from the website Thingiverse to 3D print them on their Makerbot.

Ritik with his Makerbot at home

As time passed, Ritik realized that he wanted to improve his designing skills some more and leave the simple building blocks of 3DTin behind. He slowly started using the more technical software package of TinkerCAD that he is currently still mastering to create his future dream house with.

Ritik is one of the many children of the new 3D printing generation. He has grown up in a world where it is possible to 3D Print your dream designs at home with the help of easy to use 3D software applications. As Ritik sits in his bedroom daydreaming of his future dream house, he no longer has to wait for many hard working years to see it come to life. He now sits behind his computer screen, drawing up the plans to the house that he wants catered to his own needs and taste. It’s a personalized house that he can call his own unique dream come true. Like the other kids of this 3D printing generation he’s taking the first step of many more to come towards a world of 3D printed goodness.

The next generation of 3D printer users