Feb.6, 2014
Consider doing some gloriously geeky courting this Valentine's Day by expressing your love in a 3D-printed, mathematical-grounded manner. There are several options this Valentine's Day to "3D printify" the standard bouquet of roses – including downloadable, deliverable, and computationally-cool designs.
This year, Toronto-based Proto3000 provided a demonstration of how they used 3D printing to creating timeless Valentine's Day roses. They used a 3D design from Thingiverse and printed roses using the Objet260 Connex 3D printer and VeroClear material. After printing the roses were carefully removed from the print tray and hand-cleaned to prevent breaking. The team sculpted stems from a low temperature thermoplastic polymer. Finally, they added color and a quick clear coat to seal the deal before uniting stems and blooms to create cool, 3D-printed roses.
For people in the San Francisco area, Makeshop by Brit + Co. are teaming up with TaskRabbit to add a techy twist to V-Day 2014. The Makeshop has been spooling 3D printed roses for weeks in order to give sweethearts access to some 3D printed floral love. For $25 ($10 of shipping included) you can get a bouquet of 3D printed rose delivered directly to your sweetheart's doorstep. And a dozen roses in a special mason jar vase are available for $100.
Other 3D printable rose designs available through Thingiverse include a LED-fitted version that allows the roses to change color with light. This lacey design is an interesting take on the traditional Valentine's Day rose.
These 3D printed roses are a great way to prevent things from wilting this Valentine's Day. But there are other 3D printed floral options available – how about something a little more mathy.
The 3D printed Math Roses of artist Paul Nylander were designed based on a plot of a single, continuous, parametric math equation. Nylander got the idea for the rose while working on a visualization of a spiraling spin-lattice relaxation for a physics experiment involving a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer.
The Math Rose is available through the Shapeways site for around 10 euros. It's dimensions are 1.04w x 5.02d x 3.8h cm, and it is 3D printed in white nylon plastic with a matte finish and a slightly grainy feel.
For people who tend toward natural designs, the 3D printing work of the Virtual Florist project might appeal to you. Virtual Florist a 2011 project by designers Minale-Maeda. They used real flowers in their designs, but the characteristics of these flowers are reversed – they are odorless, colorless, and do not decay.
These elegant designs are great examples of how people can use the technology of 3D printing to recreate natural objects in new ways.
No matter your floral aesthetic preference, 3D printing technology can allow you to break new ground in gift-giving this Valentine's Day with beautiful, unwiltable designs.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Oh, yay, a different variety of expensive flowers. At least these should last a little longer.