FSL Blog

Here’s something cool. We recently sent one of our own to Qualcomm’s Invent Off Season Two competition in San Francisco. This year’s competition challenged two small but diverse teams of artists, coders and engineers to create a new device that could save a life. It is all about using technology to make the world a better place, which, of course, is something we fully support.

The past few weeks we’ve been looking at some impressive pieces people have been making with 3D printers. This week I thought we would switch gears and see what interesting projects a clever mind and a laser cutter can do. Our own, in-house creative genius, Vanessa, made a beautiful stained glass replica out of laser cut acrylic. I’ve attached links to a couple videos she made, chronicling the process.

JCK was a ton of fun and huge success. We met hundreds of wonderful craftspeople and jewelers (thousands were in attendance) and got to show off our Phoenix 3D printer and our SpeedCast resin formulated for jewelry casting.

Sorry for the late (and brief) post this week. We returned from Maker Faire and immediately started preparing for JCK Las Vegas (conveniently in our own back yard). JCK is the biggest jewelry convention in North America attracting thousands of jewelers and jewelry related vendors to the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

We had such a great time at Maker Faire Bay Area we couldn’t contain our experience in one blog post. So here is a closer look at all the festivities. We also want to give a special shout out to our friends, Greg and Lora, at Steamy Tech (www.steamytech.com). They create amazing, moving gears and steampunk inspired crafts using our laser cutters and 3D printers. True Maker kindred souls!

This week we prepare for our trip to Maker Faire Bay Area on May 20th through the 22nd. Maker Faire is organized by the folks that produce Make magazine and attracts thousands of people to events held across the country. This is one of our favorite events celebrating maker culture and applied science and this year looks to be bigger and better than ever.

I first want to thank everyone who reads this blog. The entire point of its existence it is to create a community of designers and makers who want to meet new friends, share ideas and designs for laser cutting and 3d printing, and create amazing things together as artists and dreamers. More that DIY (Do It Yourself), this blog is also about DIWO (Do It With Others).

You don’t always have to create from scratch when you have a laser cutter. It’s just as easy to pick up some pre-made pieces and add your own custom flair. This project was cheap and simple since we had everything we needed lying around.

Don’t be left empty handed on Valentine’s day. Here at FSL, we’re releasing a full series of Instructables to help you impress your sweetheart.