Are you 3D-printing yet?
You've been reading about it as the technology of the future. Lounge brings you three exciting ways to include some additive manufacturing to your everyday life, here and now
Wear
3D-printed jewellery by Isharya
Infinite Petals is a collection of necklaces, rings, earrings and cuffs that display the workmanship of any high-quality handcrafted jewel, except that these have come out of a printer. The collection consists of intricate filigree patterns encasing pearl, amazonite, blue chalcedony and other precious stones. The essential material that they are made of is nylon, which makes them light but strong.
Some of these nylon pieces are cast in brass and then gold-plated, while others are directly gold-plated. Infinite Petals gets its inspiration from Sahasrara, the highest chakra in the meditative state. “The idea of marrying cutting-edge technology with traditional Indian culture really appealed to us,” says Gauri Tandon, who co-founded Isharya with her sister-in-law Radhika Tandon. The jewellery brand has a presence in a string of high-end global retailers, including Harvey Nichols in London, Bloomingdale’s in New York, and Ensemble and Aza in Mumbai.
“The additive manufacturing process is fascinating. The design is sliced up into thousands of horizontal layers and it emerges out of the printer layer by layer,” explains Tandon. Infinite Petals had a soft launch last week at the Four Seasons Residences in Mumbai. The collection is currently being shown at a trade show in Paris and will be available for retail in India from July, at Isharya.com, and Ensemble and Aza stores in Mumbai.
Do
3D-print objects at TimeTo3D Cafe
Opened last week, TimeTo3D is a café where you can explore your hidden talent in 3D printed design. It has been set up by Imaginarium, a rapid manufacturing company that provides 3D printing services to industries in partnership with the media group Time Network. “Going forward, everything from jewellery to automotive to medicine to jet engine parts is going to be produced by additive manufacturing. But application of the technology is not limited to a niche industry. We wanted to make it accessible to everyone, especially students, so that everyone can play with it like a toy,” says Tanmay Shah, head of innovations at Imaginarium.
At TimeTo3D, experts guide you through the process. There are crash courses that range from 3 hours to an entire day. You can create anything from a personalized pen drive, an object of utility like a coffee cup, to jewellery or do your own body scan and then make miniature 3D models of yourself. “The Vile Parle area is an education hub with lots of schools and colleges around. We see a lot of students coming in, they can sign up for our newsletter and keep up with talks and workshops. We want to build a community space,” says Shah. TimeTo3D is at 22, Seva Sadan, DJ Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai. Course fees range from Rs1,000-5,000.
Gift
Create personalized gifts at MakeWhale Designs
Handmade gifts are in a realm of their own. Siddharth Sah, who set up MakeWhale about a year and a half ago, employed this developing technology of 3D printing to “turn ideas and emotions into real things”. When you approach MakeWhale, they talk to you about your gift idea, follow it up with 2D sketches that you can ask to tweak, and finally 3D-print it with all the little details that you want. “We co-develop these gifts with our clients. And some people are very creative,” says Sah. One of their clients gifted his lawyer girlfriend a 3D-printed elephant figurine, with a lawyer’s white collar.
Sah’s personal favourites are making sculptures from children’s drawings. “We all have this tradition of putting our children’s doodles up on our fridge. We took a four-year-old’s drawing and made a sculpture of it,” says Sah. The process can take between 1–3 weeks. Prices depend upon the gift. A guitar pick costs Rs500, jewellery starts at Rs1,200, while the elephant gift cost Rs6,000. Available on Makewhale.com.
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First Published:28 Apr 2017, 03:42 PM IST
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