Precious Metals Comes to Shapeways, Custom Creator Designs Available in Silver

EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS--(Marketwire - June 18, 2009) - Expanding upon their ever growing offering of materials, Shapeways announced today the availability of personal silver Cufflinks and Ringpoems. This new service will allow users to design their own customized cufflinks and napkin rings and have them fabricated in beautiful, highly polished sterling silver. The appealing glint of silver will add a whole new level of class to a set of custom, monogrammed cufflinks, boosting the business suit savvy of brass or steel to something suitably luxurious for any stylish occasion. Custom silver Ringpoems on the other hand will upgrade table settings from nice to wonderful for a lot of tasteful dinners to come.

"After the successful launch of our stainless steel cufflinks, silver was the next logical step," commented Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of Shapeways. "We will continue to expand our offerings based on the needs of our users and we definitely think that precious metals add a totally new dimension. We want our customers to have the choice to order these stylish products in one of the most elegant metals."

As with all of Shapeways' Creators, the Silver Cufflink Creator and the Silver Ringpoem Creator is an easy to use online software tool accessible to anybody. Shapeways makes the entire process as easy as possible and enables the user to feel like a designer. Just choose one of the available models for the cufflinks, enter your initials (these may vary between 2 and 4) and place your order. To design your own radiant silver Ringpoems, get inspired by any beautiful text, type the words in the Ringpoem Creator and order your design in 3D. Completed designs will be fabricated and shipped within 15 working days. These particular designs in the Shapeways silver shop are a special offering and are available for a limited-time only, ending at July 5 at 12.00PM PDT, 2009.

For the production of these beautiful silver designs, Shapeways has partnered exclusively with MQast, specialists in producing quality complex metal parts and an innovator in rapid, precise custom metal parts fabrication.

"We are excited to be partnering with Shapeways, a pioneer in online custom 3D precious metal parts, and enable anyone in the world to design personal items such as cufflinks and napkin Ringpoems to own or share with a friend or loved one," said Scott Turner, MQast General Manager. "Providing quality custom parts fast is what MQast customers have become accustomed to and we are looking forward to now also be sharing our expertise with Shapeways customers."

The silver shop is now open at www.shapeways.com. Prices range from $99 for the magnificent silver Cufflinks to $129 for the exclusive Ringpoems.

About Shapeways:

Shapeways, the world's first 3D co-creation community, brings design to life with cost effective, high quality 3D printing. Shapeways is redefining Do-It-Yourself by connecting consumers to the latest in micro production with easy to use click-and-drag product customization. This software is called Creators, easily allowing you to personalize for instance the Lightpoem, Ringpoem, Stampmaker, Fruitconfession and Photoshaper. For seasoned 3D designers advanced upload-to-print tools are available. Shapeways encompasses a diverse community of artists and enthusiasts that engage in collaborative creation and selling their 3D designs as products through the unique Shapeways Shops, an international marketplace for consumer created 3D printed products. Shapeways is spinning out from the Lifestyle Incubator of Royal Philips Electronics, located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

About MQast:

MQast enables users to quickly and efficiently produce certifiable, complex, custom metal parts for design verification, communication and testing as well as single and low-volume end-use. The online community is a joint venture between 3D Systems and Scicon, two pioneering companies in the Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Manufacturing and 3D printing applications delivering first-class solutions, materials and services to a wide range of industries, individuals and companies around the world. www.mqast.com

Editors Note:

Images available at http://www.shapeways.com/presscorner

Contact Information: Media contact: Jessica Hasson jessica@shapeways.com 323-710-3556 Rian Gemei rian@shapeways.com Tel: 0031-402741552