Monday, July 29, 2013

New Material on Shapeways

This month, Shapeways has rolled out a new material for it's 3D printed products: Gold Plated Brass! I know they've had gold plated steel for a couple years now but the images I've seen for this look like a much higher quality. I can't even see the stepping from the printing process. Since it uses a similar technology and has essentially the same design rules, they've made this material available on all products that are already available in Premium Silver so although I haven't had a chance to test print my items with it yet it is available on many items in my shop. If you should purchase anything (from me or any other designer) in this exciting new material, please feel free to share the results! For more information, please check out the official blog post on Shapeways.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

July 2013: New Designs on Spoonflower

Remember all those ties from yesterday? Well, I've been creating designs intended for my new shop on Spoonflower. Spoonflower sells print on demand fabrics, wallpaper, and gift wrap but I realized that a lot of them would work well as necktie designs on Zazzle. Anyway, these are the designs that I've put up for sale this month on Spoonflower, but some of them may look a little familiar. In case you're wondering many of the designs created from photographs taken by my father.

Purple White Tulips
Purple white tulips on green. Photograph taken at the Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Smiley Faces and Wicked Faces
Random smiley faces generated by a program I wrote. The first comes in a wide range of bright colors and expressions while the second consists of wicked little devils in shades of red.
Bacteriophage: Black and White and Neon
The bacteriophage is my favorite virus. Not only does it t reproduce by infecting and destroying bacteria but it's got an icosahedron for a head and cute little legs to grab hold of the bacteria's membrane! Modeled in Maya and rendered to look like an image from an electron microscope for the black and white version. I then added a gradient map to give it some color in the neon version.
Bamboo: Purple Stripes
Close-up of bamboo with purple stripes. Photograph taken at the San Diego Botanic Garden's bamboo garden.
Coleus
Repeating pattern of coleus (I think) plants. I wish I could be sure, but it definitely resembles the coleus plants I found on Google. Another one from San Diego Botanic Garden.
Fractal 01: Big and Small
I've always loved fractals. What can I say? I like the idea of combining math and art. Made this years ago with some free fractal program whose name I don't remember anymore. There are so many of them. I couldn't decide what size to make this in so I've got two: one inch squares and four inch squares.
Tropical Pair O' Dice
A pair of dice in a tropical setting. Don't look at me like that! Someone had to make the joke. One of my older designs that I've adapted for Spoonflower.
Homicidal Pacifist
I don't believe in violence, but lord knows there's some folks out there I'd like to strangle peacefully in their sleep. I've also heard the design described as looking like a "Peace Pirate" so if you're looking to express a more peaceful outlook on Talk Like a Pirate Day, this is for you.
Dino Mask
It's a dinosaur wearing a gas mask and carrying an air tank. What more is there to say? I got the idea from a cloud I saw out the window of an airplane while flying home one day. It's one of my old designs and I've got several different versions (Including a 3d model) but so far I've only added the Old Paper version to Spoonflower.
Cthulhu Yin-Yang
A pair of Cthulhu heads attempting to recreate the Yin-Yang symbol. I think they're having a little trouble keeping their tentacles where they belong, Each pair is organized into a group of four and I know it looks like they're offset diagonally but that's just an optical illusion created by the tentacles.
Bamboo
Closeup of a bamboo stalk arranged in repeating vertical stripes. Another one from the bamboo garden.
Tropical Leaf Stripes
Vertical stripes made from a close up of a tropical plant's leaf. I wish I could tell you exactly what plant it was, but I was too buy enjoying the SD Botanic Garden to take notes.
Scales
Blue green and purple scales with yellow edges. This one doesn't have much of a story. I just liked the color combinations.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

July 2013: New Items from Zazzle

This month was a good month for ties on my Zazzle store. I think you'll see why after the next post.

Tropical Pair 'O Dice Tie
A pair of dice in a tropical setting. Don't look at me like that! Someone had to make the joke.
Coleus Tie
Repeating pattern of coleus (I think) plants.
Scales Tie
Blue green and purple scales with yellow edges.
Bamboo Stripes Tie
Closeup of a bamboo stalk arranged in repeating stripes. Use "Customize It" button to rotate the direction of the stripes if you'd like. 
Bamboo: Purple Stripes Neck Tie
Closeup of a bamboo stalk with purple stripes. Click the "Customize It" button to rotate the orientation of you'd like
Capsaicin Tie
A spicy design covered in capsaicin molecules and peppers.

One of my favorite molecules, Theobromine (From Theobroma - food of the gods) is one of the best known components of chocolate.
Tropical Leaf Stripes Necktie
Stripes made from a close up of a tropical plant's leaf. Click the "Customize it" button to rotate the direction of the stripes if you'd like.
Fossil Layers Tie
Brightly colored fossils, including trilobites, ammonites, and turritellas.
Cthulhu Tie
Cthulhu Fhtagn. Design is actually based on a necklace I've got on Shapeways.
Cthulhu Yin-Yang Tie
A pair of Cthulhu heads attempting to recreate the Yin-Yang symbol. I think they're having a little trouble keeping their tentacles where they belong.
Square Knots Tie
The square Celtic knots pattern with threads in shades of purple varying to red on a deep violet background.
Dino Mask Tie
It's a dinosaur wearing a gas mask and carrying an air tank. What more is there to say?
Weeping Japanese Maple Tie
Weeping Japanese Maple leaves with a little over saturation.
Bamboo: Yellow Stripes Tie
Closeup of bamboo with yellow stripes.
Nightshade Cards
Pack of cards with a decorative nightshade design on the back.

What is this?

I'm constantly adding new designs to my Cafepress, Zazzle, Spreadshirt, Mysoti (well, not so much these days), and Prinfection stores. If you're not familiar with these sites, they're all print on demand companies. I create designs for t-shirts and other products, upload them, place them on the appropriate items, and offer them for sale. Products are produced and shipped by the company. There is no inventory, but since they're usually made one or two at a time they tend to be more expensive than similar mass produced items. I retain the rights to my designs and can use them in as many stores as I like. This is good, since they all tend to have slightly different selections of items to work with and price ranges.

Most of these designs are printed on shirts or other clothing but there are other items available and I've tried to mark the ones that are only available on non clothing items. Links to Cafepress or Printfection often lead to pages with multiple products for sale but Zazzle doesn't have that option. If I have multiple produts (including designs specificaly for light or dark clothing) for sale there I'll include links to all of them. Links to Spreadshirt take you to the product designer where you can select whatever product you want to print the design on yourself. You can even search for and add other designs or text for complete customization. Designs labled as "Vector" have been simplified to a maximum of three solid colors and the product designer will allow you to pick and choose each of those colors yourself.

I also have items available on Shapeways that are not simply printed onto other products but created from scratch with 3D printing and come in a variety of materials like plastics, steel, silver, and ceramics. Prices vary between the materials you order it in. The materials each model is available in depends on the size and geometry of the item.