This weeks Designer Spotlight focuses on Daphne Lameris, the industrial design engineer who started with Shapeways by redesigning a favorite ring once lost.

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? Where are you located?
I’m 21 years old. I study Industrial Design Engineering at Twente University in Enschede, the Netherlands. In August 2013 I got my bachelor degree. In 2015 I hope to get my master degree with a specialization in Emerging Technology Design.

What’s the story behind your designs? What inspires you?
For my bachelor thesis I chose an assignment at the National Aerospace Laboratory where they just got a Selective Laser Melting facility. SLM is a 3D printing technique suitable for many metals. I spent three months discovering the possibilities and limits of this technique, resulting in a printed demonstrator that shows the new possibilities of 3D printing. I was fascinated by these new opportunities for all the different sectors. In my free time I started to design my own jewelry with interlocked parts that could not be produced otherwise. I designed it because I wanted the jewelry and because I simply could (sadly not with the SLM machine, that was not available and too expensive for own use). I love to see the ideas in my head turn into real products. The jewelry I
design is jewelry I want to wear but I couldn’t found in stores.

What brought you to 3D printing with Shapeways?
I heard of Shapeways from fellow students. I started to design a silver ring I lost a few years ago right away. I had been searching for that ring or something in that style for years, but I never found it. Designing it myself and letting Shapeways print it was a great way of replacing my lost ring. Two years later, when I was working on my bachelor thesis, I started to design more.

How did you learn how to design in 3D?
It’s a part of my education. I learned modelling in Solidworks. I’m currently trying to learn Blender, since it’s free and more organic.

How do you promote your work?
I tell my friends and family. When I’m proud of a new piece, I post it on Facebook. And of course, I’m always wearing at least one piece of self-designed jewelry. When people ask me what I want to do after graduation,  I always start talking about 3D printing and my jewelry is a good example of the new possibilities of it.

Who are your favorite designers or artists? Who in the Shapeways community has served as an inspiration to you?
I don’t really remember names, but there are so many products I love. I love the funny sandstone figures (like the colorful elephants, the dinosaur with tools for better reach). I also love the designer that makes skeleton figures of mystical figures, like a winged human skeleton sitting down. And the wireframe animal heads cannot be forgotten of course. When I’m old and rich, I want one of those on my walls.

If you weren’t limited by current technologies, what would you want to make using 3D printing?
I would want to print gemstones with the jewelry. I sometimes glue on little plastic stones on my jewelry, to give just a little more spark. It would be great to have that done in the printing process. Or just the opportunity to print colored clear glass. Combining that with the flexible WSF to put the glass in would make the greatest jewelry.

Check out Daphne’s the full collection of her lovely jewelry here. If you’d like to be featured, feel free to email aimee@shapeways.com.