This week in 3D printing, we turned champagne grapes into… ice buckets, applauded a Shapeways alum who’s winning in the 3D printed metal space, watched a budding musician play again — thanks to a 3D printed arm.
The Best Kind of Hangover
In a delicious turn of events, designer and architect Andrew Kudless has found a way to turn grape skin waste from winemaking into 3D printed objects, as part of a Perrier-Jouet-sponsored art exhibit, and now, it’s becoming a thing. “You have the liquid part of the grape sitting in an ice bucket made of the solid part of the grape,” he told Food & Wine. Local, renewable, upcycled materials from an all-natural agricultural process? Cheers!
Grape skin turned champagne bucket, courtesy Perrier-Jouet
So Proud
Rather than merely jump on the 3D metal printing bandwagon, former Shapie Graham Bredermeyer decided to reinvent the wheel. His new startup Collider (covered by TechCrunch last week), will break the 3D metal printing mold by… printing the mold, too. Their Orchid printer, still just a prototype, prints a mold, then fills the mold, in a beautiful injection molding/3D printing hybrid. Leave it to a Shapie to take the whole concept of 3D printing to a new place. Slow clap.
A 3D printed mold, filling with metal (source: YouTube)
Play It Again!
It’s becoming clear that 3D printing for medical purposes could literally change all of our lives, and perhaps nowhere more so than for those with limited mobility. Like Kharan Wilbur, an 11-year-old cellist who received an arm designed specifically to play the cello. One day, amputees and those born without limbs might have a different 3D printed limb for every challenge. Amazing news, and extra-inspiring for those of us who can’t even play the cello WITH two functioning arms….