GRAVITYSHAPES means bringing ideas, materials and forms into new dimensions. Discover exclusive and unusual 3D decorations, accessories and useful functional objects. Behind GRAVITYSHAPES is a young Swiss designer who is experimenting with different materials and techniques, shaping his ideas into new dimensions, and this pleases people all over the world. Hopefully you too.
Materials
GRAVITYSHAPES always focuses on natural biological raw materials, which in the ideal case can also be composted, melted or recycled in order to enable sustainable material cycles. The additive 3D printing techniques used to produce the designer pieces, which, in contrast to conventional production methods, do not (practically) create any waste combined with natural raw materials, make the design pieces of GRAVITYSHAPES apart from the unique shapes and functions to very special pieces.
Whether wood, sandstone, metals, porcelain or PLA from sugar cane and corn starch etc., GRAVITYSHAPES is always looking for new, interesting and natural printing materials, special materials and colors, as well as partners who manufacture them professionally and with the highest quality processing and finishing.
Material:
One of the favorite materials of GRAVITYSHAPES is wood. Wood filaments (printing material) generally consist of 40-80% raw wood and in addition PLA (made from corn starch, sugar cane or soya etc.). Due to the high proportion of wood, the finished object not only looks as if they made of wood, they also smell good like wood. The layers resulting from the 3D printing give natural structures and natural wood haptics in combination with the natural wood colors. With 3D printing, object shapes (for example, very filigree or hollow), which are not possible with classical woodworking methods such as sawing, drilling or milling, are possible. In the case of additive 3D printing almost no waste is produced, since the objects are built up layer by layer and are not removed from a wooden block as in the case of classical wood processing.
Printed wood objects can be reworked and refined upon request, like traditional wood products. Whether sawing, sanding, oiling or painting, 3D woodprints have the usual characteristics of wood.
While there are already a selection of different wood filaments and colors from maple, olive, bamboo to coconut etc. for classic 3D printers, the wood print on industrial printing machines and processes is still in experimental status and unfortunately still limited of one to two rudimentary wood colors.
In short, wood filaments are made of natural raw materials with a high proportion of wood and are usually both woodworkable and biodegradable. The haptics as well as the smell correspond to the wood. In industrial printing, unfortunately, there is still a lack of different wood varieties.
Material:
White gold, as porcelain is also called, we know mainly from crockery and sculptures. With 3D printing, it is not immediately linked, but thanks to new technologies it is also possible to create completely new and unique objects from this well-known natural material. GRAVITYSHAPES always likes to explore what is possible with it and is experimenting at the limit of the possible.
Unlike most other materials (and similar to some metal processing), porcelain objects are not printed directly in this material. Instead, the production takes place in several steps. First, the digital object is mostly printed in 3D in a wax material, a negative form is created, the wax is melted out and the resulting cavity filled with porcelain. After a longer firing process in a kiln, the object is covered with a glaze (and again fired) as desired, which gives it a glossy and optionally also colored coating.
Porcelain has some very useful features. These objects are, among other things, water-tight, which is why they are particularly suitable for vases and flower pots. The material is also one of the few materials that can safely come into contact with food, which is why it is also ideal for cups, plates or fruit bowls.
To produce porcelain objects with the help of 3D printing allows to produce much finer and more extraordinary objects than is possible with classical handwork (shaping), but compared to other 3D printing materials, the detail richness is very limited. The requirements for the minimum wall thickness and details for a successful porcelain casting, as well as the partly strong smoothing of the object contours through the glaze, present completely new challenges for designers.
In short, porcelain is a natural product made of natural materials, which is known and very noble, which is both water-resistant and can come into contact with food without problems. Thanks to new 3D technologies, much finer and more unusual porcelain objects can be produced in a multi-stage production process than is possible by hand. However, the detail range is by no means comparable to other 3D printing materials.
Material:
Apart from ABS, PLA is one of the classic standard materials in 3D printing. Unlike ABS, which is based on petroleum, PLA is produced from renewable natural raw materials. PLA (abbreviation for polylactide) is a biodegradable plastic (biopolymer) made from natural raw materials such as sugar cane, corn starch or soya. PLA is therefore also often used for packaging materials, cups, foils and boxes that come into contact with foodstuffs.
Since PLA is a material made from natural renewable raw materials, it is also a preferred standard material for GRAVITYSHAPES. It is easy to process and is available in many different colors. Whether red, green, purple, yellow, blue, black, white or gold etc., light or dark, metallic, transparent, glossy or matt, PLA has many manufacturers and colors to choose from. And constantly new ones are added. The relatively inexpensive material is also excellent for the printing of prototypes, but, like every material, has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, PLA can not tolerate strong heat such as candles.
Due to the biological composition, PLA objects can also be composted in bioreactors and can thus form a raw material cycle without harmful waste.
In short, PLA is a natural product made from renewable raw materials, such as for example Corn and sugar cane, which is also biodegradable. It is relatively cheap, easy to print, available in many colors and variations and therefore a standard material in the 3D printing area.
Material:
As a natural product, sandstone has a coarse-grained appearance and is very popular as a material, especially in sculptures or plant pots. Unlike sculptors who chisel their figures from a large heavy stone, with the additive 3D printing sandstone filament is applied layer by layer. This allows much finer and more filigree structures, but they also have their limitations and do not reach on the detail richness and the stability of PLA, wood or ABS. Similar to sandcasting construction, sandstone objects are very fragile.
As with the wood filament, the sandstone filament consists not of 100% sandstone, but of a mixed composition of grated sandstone and a flux (generally a plant-based PLA).
The special thing about sandstone is, however, not only its grainy appearance, but it is currently one of the few 3D printing materials (if not the only one), which also enables colored 3D prints (as with a inkjet color paper printer). This property makes sandstone also a popular material for small 3D scanned and then 3D printed miniature figures of humans and animals. However, the colors can fade through the sun and blur through contact with water.
In addition to natural printing (monochrome) and color printing, sandstone objects can also be finished with a lacquer, which makes the fragile objects more shiny, more stable and more resistant to UV light.
In short, sandstone is very difficult as in sandburgen construction, but has a nice coarse-grained natural look. It is probably the only material currently available that allows for multi-color 3D prints in an industrial environment, as is customary from a classic inkjet printer.
Material:
3D printing with metals is not only used in the industry, e.g. it is very popular for prototypes or machine parts, but also for jewelry designers and artists. Whether precise spare parts or filigree jewelery, in order to produce 3D objects made of metals, there are not only different processes (from layer printing to casting), but also a wide range of materials.
Whether gold, silver, platinum, bronze, copper, aluminum, brass or steel, whether 14 or 18 carats, the choice is diverse. Depending on the production process, 100% pure metal is used or, as with wood and sandstone, a mixture of metal (20-80%) and flux.
The printed objects can then be further processed and refined as desired. Whether raw, partially or completely ground, polished or oxidized, various techniques are available to achieve the desired surface effects.
Compared to other materials, objects made of metals (although they can be hollow inside) are often heavier than objects made of PLA, ABS or wood etc. and therefore have a very high quality and noble look. This also has its price, so metal filaments are much more expensive than other materials – apart from the gold, silver and platinum prices.
In short: Whether noble jewelery, creative art objects or precise industrial parts, with metals, fine, luxurious and high-quality 3D objects can be produced. The objects have not only neat weight, but also priceless prices – not just for designer pieces made of gold, silver or platinum.
Material:
Unfortunately, not all 3D objects can be printed in the preferred materials wood, sandstone, porcelain, metal, BDP or PLA. Just as very thin-walled and filigree design pieces can not be made with sandstone or porcelain or too large objects with metal would be too costly, there are, among other things, also machine limitations in production. Wood, PLA and BDP are not yet available in large industrial 3D printing machines and processes, or only in a very limited scope, which means that some objects can only be produced on smaller printers as prototypes or limited individual products, where the quality is usually not so good. Or it is necessary to resort to Nylon / ABS as an alternative production material.
While in the small frame PLA belongs to the standard, the reference piece in industrial production is Nylon or ABS. Also in Nylon / ABS there are many different colors, but also transparent or metallic look colors available. The material is similar to PLA. In contrast to PLA made from natural raw materials, Nylon / ABS is based on petroleum.
There are also some differences between Nylon / ABS and PLA, e.g. the UV resistance, the lifetime or the deformation of 3D objects during the printing process. Here Nylon / ABS also has advantages. Especially when it comes to outdoor use. Like classic plastic products, however, Nylon / ABS objects should not come into contact with food.
In short, on large industrial 3D printers, many 3D objects can only be printed in Nylon / ABS. The plastic material, made from petroleum, corresponds in appearance with the PLA made from natural raw materials and is also available in many different colors as well as in transparent or metallic look. This material is not suitable for objects that come into contact with foodstuffs.
Finishing:
In addition to finishing the 3D prints by cleaning, polishing and grinding, GRAVITYSHAPES also offers objects that can be purchased with plants or lighting technology. GRAVITYSHAPES works with a growing number of different local partners such as small flower and decor shops, which are usually free to decorate the design pieces of GRAVITYSHAPES with plants and decorations. For all those customers who like to give away a finished and planted GRAVITYSHAPES object as a gift, for example e.g. the porcelain plant-pot in water-look planted with beautiful cacti.
The original GRAVITYSHAPES object will also be provided with beautiful labels*, which will guide to further information about the product, the material and the production.
* Only when purchased from the GRAVITYSHAPES Online Shop and from GRAVITYSHAPES supplied shops, but not from the purchase directly from the printing shop, e.g. in our Shapeways-Shop.
Depending on the partner location, your individual wishes can sometimes also be taken into account, such as the planting. Just talk to the creative minds on the ground!
In short: GRAVITYSHAPES offers more than just raw design pieces printed in 3D. Whether with beautiful and perhaps even individual plantings or including accessories and technology like candles, soaps or lamps, the designer objects from GRAVITYSHAPES are also available in extraordinary creative compositions.
