On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 EdGrenda@aol.com wrote:
> Maybe I'm not aware of what's going on, but the curious thing is why this
> hasn't been happening using existing technology, and why at least one service
> bureau hasn't considered the market potential and gone after it.
>
> Perhaps their engineering focus is a little too strong. There are reasons
> why dealing with a consumer market may be more difficult than engineering
> markets such as attention to details, materials, coloration and finish. But
> there are other reasons that may make it easier, as well - You don't need to
> hit dimensions on the nose, for example (pun intended). The number of
> potential customers is very large compared to the engineering world, and the
> possibility of repeat business exists. A relatively time-insensitive
> consumer market may also be a good way to work off the amortization of this
> expensive equipment when it would otherwise be sitting idle.
Returning to reality for a moment, I think color's a big sticking
point at this time. We all agree that finish needs to be better, and
that it's going there, but nobody much seems to be working on color,
and it'll be a big leap when they do. I see it as part of a general
lack of attention to RP objects as final products, rather than
manufacturing tools.
I do like the idea of hand-painting 3-D portraits - I can see a nice
high-end business in that. Or would the products be too eerie? I
guess they wouldn't always have to be painted superrealistically.
Here's a good one: funerary art. Personalized urns, boxes, stones,
masks, the works. Design your own with Microsoft Mausoleum.
> Why haven't one of you artists offered this service to consumers using a
> multiplicity of SB's? They bronze baby shoes, don't they? I don't know why,
> but they do.
For my part, the main reason I'm not doing it is that I'm
undercapitalized and otherprioritized. To make money out of a $60K a
box that's going be dead obsolete in three years, you have to be ready
to let it take over your life, able to market your niche like a wild
ape, and (as in any business) prepared to eat the cost if it fails.
I'm only ready to work half-time on any day job, and it has to make a
surefire living, while being something I can walk away from in a
second, if I should ever happen to sell any art. So there are many
excellent opportunities which are not of interest to me, and the baby
shoe business is one.
Hey, with this technology you can bronze the whole baby.
> If it can be shown that there is a substantial market, the development of
> systems to fill the segment will follow. Somebody has to apply market
> imagination first, however, and it isn't going to be the systems houses.
Somebody'll come along.
Here's a question: is anything being done with glass? It seems as
though if you can make a metal object it ought to be possible to make
a glass object, and I could think of some very nice uses for that.
-Sheba
Bathsheba Grossman (831) 429-8224
Digital Sculpture http://www.bathsheba.com
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