It’s easy to “pin” something you like but have you ever tried to make something you like? With the advent of 3D printers, more individual designers and entrepreneurs are developing high quality products and selling their goods (and ideas!) via websites like Inventables. Don’t have a CNC (computer numerical control) milling machine to cut the wood for your keepsake box? No problem. Inventables will not only give you the design and directions to build it, they’ll sell you all the materials you need and sell you a kit to make your own.
Be sure to sign up for their email. Once a week Inventables sends ridiculously cool new materials like water proof sand (it comes out dry after immersion in water), and rubber glass (it looks like glass, breaks like glass, but feels like rubber). What kind of creative person wouldn’t love to play with that? 11-year-old Lily Born designed and printed out the cup below for her grandfather, who has Parkinson’s disease. It’s designed, with the extra stability of its handles, to spill less.
The Kangaroo Cup: An unbreakable, no-coaster-needed, sits on uneven surfaces and stacks up nicely in the cupboard, was made by 11-year-old Lily Born. She used hand moldable plastic ($8.50) from Inventables.