Prototyping with MakerBot

Planters prototyped in warm grey PLA hold rosemary from our roof garden.

We've written before about prototyping with MakerBot and other home 3D printers over the last two years. For the planters that we sell here on our site and on Etsy, we prefer to use commercial 3D printers like Shapeways and Ponoko, but for prototyping, using a desktop 3D printer better suits our needs. Prints can be made in less than an hour (no waiting for a week for prints!), and I can immediately make changes to file if I see a change that needs to be made.

Printing on the Makerbot Z18.

We've been lucky the last few weeks to have access to a MakerBot Z18, the newest of their series, to prototype some of our new forthcoming planters. Before we've printed on their Thing-o-matic and Replicator 2 Machines. The print quality has improved slightly from the earlier models, which is helpful when prototyping small pieces. The main changes with the newer MakerBots is the interface is much more intuitive to use, and now they're capable of printing much larger pieces.

Made with purple PLA.

Also, these planters were printed in PLA, a plastic made from cornstarch. The material is biodegradable over time, but can warp when exposed to heat, making this material suitable for use for prototyping.

Making and 3D printing on a MakerBot still isn't perfect, but its pretty amazing when you can hold a physical product in your hand that only existed on a computer screen hours before!

Want to see more of what we're making? Follow us on instagram to see our latest projects and experiments.

Art in the Digital Age

This Wednesday, August 20th, I'll be speaking at Ogilvy & Mather with the Iron Yard Atlanta at a panel discussion about the changing face of art in the 21st century.

The event will be at Ogilvy & Mather's Atlantic Station offices. You can RSVP and find more details about the event on Meetup.

Printable DIY: Bookmarks for Summer Reading and Back to School

This week I worked with my friends Trisha Bell, Tyna Kachnic, and Christina Mayo as part of our collaborative group, Oscar Eastwood, to create a series of fun bookmarks to brighten your reading. The timing of this project happens to coincide with the first week back to school for children in Georgia and the Southeast, but whether you're reading for school or fun, you can print out and make these bookmarks to mark your pages.

You can find this project along with some bookplates to download on Oscar Eastwood.

Make Your Own String Art

Step 1: Gather Your Tools and Materials

Gathering your tools is always the first and most important step of any DIY project. For this project you're going to need:

• a wood board or plank
• masking tape
• a hammer
• a lot of small nails (you'll need at least 100. For two signs we used 3 packs of XX nails)
• embroidery floss, yarn, or thread (we used embroidery floss)
• Access to a computer with a printer and Adobe Illustrator (optional, but highly recommended)
• Optional: Paint pen (to paint the tops of nails)

Step 2: Outline Your Sign

Whether you're making a sign with text or an image, you'll want to outline your sign first. For this I used Adobe Illustrator, but you can use the vector image software of your choice, like Inkscape.

First I outlined my words with a thin black line. I made a copy of that text over the first version, made it into the dashed line to mark where the nails should be. This step is optional, but will save you a lot of time in determining where your nails should be placed. Once you're happy with your image or text and nail outline, print out your file.

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Step 3: Tape your Overlay Onto your Sign

Tape your printed overlay onto your sign. We used masking tape to hold the printed overlay in place. Nail your nails into the marked points on the sheet.

Step 4: Riiiiiip

Rip off your stencil from the board. This step is really satisfying. Don't worry if there are any small bits of paper left, you can remove those with tweezers. If they're left they won't really be visible in the final project.

Step 5: Outline your letters

For each letter, start by tying a double knot around one nail of each letter.

Next wrap around the outline of the letter.

Fill in the letter by zig-zagging through he points in the letter. Do this until it looks complete or thick enough to you.

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Tie off the string for that letter with another double knot. Cut off any excess string. If you have a paint pen in the same color as your string, paint the tips of the nails to make your sign more legible or "pop" more.

Repeat this process for all the letters or images in your sign. You're probably going to be looking at the sign from a few feet away, so don't stress out about every detail of this being perfect. Embrace your mistakes!

Step 6: Show off your work!

Congratulations! you've finished this (moderately time consuming) DIY project, so show off your work! We added hooks to the back off our sign and nailed it to the wall, but this craft could be displayed on a bookshelf or countertop, too.

Welcome to the New Wearable Planter Site

Hello! If you're a frequent visitor to the site you might have noticed a change in the look and feel of our website. As the seasons are changing from spring to summer (or in Georgia, hot to hotter), we felt it was time to refresh the look and feel of our digital storefront. All of our products and the same blog content are still here, so if you're looking for a gift or how to plant succulents, you'll still be able to find it. 

To celebrate our new look, we're offering 15% off all orders from now until July 1st. Just enter NEWLOOK at checkout.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to email us at hello@wearableplanter.com or tweet us at @wearplants.

WEARABLE PLANTER & BRIT+CO AT RE:MAKE IN AUSTIN, TX

We're excited to announce that we'll be joining Brit+Co at Re:Make in Austin, TX May 3-4. Re:Make will be at the Palmer Events Center in downtown Austin. We'll be there showing you how to create miniature gardens and showing off our new pieces for spring and summer. Come put your cowboy boots on and join us as we take part in a celebration of a new wave of American makers and see the great work that is coming out of the maker movement!

PS: Our friends Matter Inc. and Native Bear will be there, too!