3D Primo

Our first print from the eufyMake E1 UV texture printer at Do Epic Stuff this morning was a 3 dimensional rendition of 龍, the Chinese/Japanese character for dragon. We're impressed by the superfine resolution and tone graduation. The height of the character is about 0.5 mm and it took 11 minutes to print. We look forward to exploring its capabilities further and coming up with designs that take full advantage of this exciting new technology.

First look at the E1 UV Texture Printer . Impressive ultra high 1440 dpi resolution.

Looking forward to finding out more about colour 3D printing this morning. We can see alot of potential.

It was great to be able to take the students' Skytree out to Tokyo to meet its big brother. We just about managed to keep it intact for the journey out, but it had to be rather unceremoniously disassembled for the return leg. Hopefully they can weld it back together again.

Great to catch up with Diana from .unplugged at yesterday's .

All set up and ready to go at today's Wirral MakeFest.

Whilst visitors try their hand at Japanese woodblock printing at Wirral MakeFest on Saturday, we'll be turning the clock back 200 years to Edo (modern day Tokyo) and the world of Hokusai.

Here are some photos from the recently reopened 江戸東京博物館　Edo-Tokyo Museum, a must-visit for anyone travelling to Tokyo.

What is art without technology? A Chopin etude without the invention of the piano? A Jane Austen novel without the printing press? The Sistine chapel ceiling without some sturdy scaffolding?

And so it is with Hokusai’s Great Wave. From the seasoned cherry planks and razor sharp steel carving tools (or in our case, the laser-cutting machines) required to produce the woodblocks, the delicate but incredibly strong Japanese washi papers to the specially formulated inks, brushes and barens, the ukiyo-e artists relied upon and made expert use of the technologies available to them in Edo period Japan.

We’ll be talking about the Technology behind the Great Wave whilst you have a go at printing your own Wirral MakeFest at Birkenhead Central Library on Saturday.

Whilst visitors enjoy the rare opportunity of creating their very own prints, we’ll be dipping into some of the Science behind The Great Wave at Wirral MakeFest on Saturday.

You'll discover why the lethal-sounding - but perfectly safe - ferric ferrocyanide is used to obtain the deep blue hues used by this and countless other ukiyo-e woodblock prints produced in Japan.

And we’ll be monitoring the air temperature and humidity, as these can significantly affect the quality of our prints. Fingers crossed for a nice warm and humid day!