I saw an awesome mask. I always found them fascinating. Not because of the object itself but for the mystery that the person who is wearing it is surrounded with. I also saw a great art object remade in miniature scale by a 3D printer on QI once. Previously, I also had the idea to create a 3d printer for chocolate.
These three examples just give you a tip of what a 3D printer is capable of. What if someone would create a market place in which patterns can be downloaded and roll out a 3D printer directly. Every pattern could be under some kind of Creative Commons license.
The platform itself makes money by selling 3D printers, 3D printing raw materials and a commission on each downloaded pattern (cfr. online image and font libraries). The creator of a pattern gets paid per use.
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