Home décor and 3D printed furniture
As we covered in a previous article, 3D printing technology offers multiple advantages which makes it ideal for constructing one-off pieces of art, particularly surrealist work. The ability to construct complex objects and deposit specific amounts of materials when and where required means that less materials are wasted in the creation of some rather stunning pieces of 3D printed art. 3D printing hobbyists and interior design specialists were quick to recognise that this technology may be extremely useful not only for artistic purposes, but for functional purposes too.
Unique 3D printed home decor products, particularly furniture, have started appearing more and more frequently in the marketplace. It’s one thing to purchase a realistic 3D printed figurine as a gift for your friends, but quite another to dine at a table and sit on a chair, both of which have been additively constructed using your own designs! As futuristic as this sounds, the day has already come when this is possible.
3D printed products courtesy of Amazon
Internet retailing giant, Amazon, recently opened a 3D Printing Store, where they are selling hundreds of unique products, with home decor items being some of the most interesting. It’s safe to say that the designs you can find in Amazon’s store would not be found anywhere else, one example being MGX’s 3D Printed Chaos Table Lamp, featuring 1000 sticks which shield the light source and create a unique display of shadows.
Other items include lampshades, psychedelic skulls, plant holders and more. Vases are another popular type of item stocked by Amazon, with stunning products such as Noah Hornberger’s sleak Time Traveler Vase and the intricately designed Spiral Twisted Vase by Shachar Weis. In fact, MakerBot have released an app which allows people to make their own vases, all from the privacy of their home!
Unique additively constructed furniture
To make a truly unique piece of furniture, a craftsman may have to labour for days in order to adhere to a client’s specifications. Nowadays, companies such as Drawn are producing entire pieces of furniture with the click of a mouse! Using a robotic arm 3D printer known as Galatea, the masterminds at Drawn are able to produce large objects all in one go. Printing objects of this size with a standard 3D printer would entail printing out numerous parts and slotting them all together to make the finished product. As with most 3D printed objects, the layer upon layer construction is very noticeable in the design, but Drawn have managed to use this to their advantage by incorporating startling colour schemes which complement the layered look. Some of Drawn’s wonderful designs can be viewed here.
A chair which grows fungus
If you spotted fungus growing from one of your chairs, most people would expect you to give it a good scrub down, but not in this case! Designer Eric Klarenbeek has designed a chair which has been 3D printed using a material which is comprised of powdered straw, water and Mycelium fungus. By printing this material layer after layer and leaving it to soak in water, the Mycelium begins to grow, replacing the water and fusing with the straw.
Next, a bio-plastic outer shell is printed and placed over the original straw structure. Within a few days, the fungus has grown and become intertwined with the outer shell, resulting in a miraculous looking fungus-sprouting chair. While this product is not intended for practicality, it demonstrates that organic compounds can be effectively extruded with a 3D printer to create an object which is both energy-efficient and biodegradable.
(Image by Eric Klarenbeek)
Tagged with: 3D printed furniture, Amazon 3D Printing Store, 3D vases
