We invited a handful of members of the 3D printing community that we have been featuring for #3DThursday or on our weekly 3D Hangouts live show to share with us their thoughts about the past year, what they each shared, and what they are looking forward to for 2015.

Todd Blatt is a mechanical engineer, and 3d modeler who lives in Baltimore, MD. He works for Tinkerine Studios as the VP of Market Direction and he runs Custom 3D Stuff. He’s really into making 3d printed jewelry and creating movie props and replicas. You can check out his blog at www.custom3dstuff.com and his crowdsourced 3d printing stuff at www.wethebuilders.com

Q: TOP 3D PRINTING MOMENTS FROM 2014?

(a personal 2014 year in review!)

• 2014 was awesome because I got to be a part of another flagship 3d printer launch. I’m very excited to be apart of Tinkerine and it was exciting to be a part of a company as it went public. I joined up with them officially at the beginning of this year, and have really been on the road getting the DittoPro out there and into the hands of a whole new generation of makers.
• It was great to speak at Bay Area Maker Faire and show people dozens and dozens of 3d printing replica prop projects I worked on. Seeing print the legend at the world premiere at sxsw and then again at NY Maker Faire with so many people I love was great. Pretty much all in all, everything related to Maker Faire has always been awesome.

Q: WHAT’S A 3D PROJECT YOU SHARED THIS YEAR?

2014 was also the start of We The Builders. I was able to head up an operation to build a platform for creating large scale 3d prints using a distributed network of printers. People from all over the world print out their part and mail it to me in Baltimore where I glue them all together and build a giant awesome sculpture. in 2014 we did two, George Crowdsourcington and Ben Franklinstein.

Q: WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR 3D PRINTING IN 2015?

In early 2015 we’ll see the launch of the third WeTheBuilders crowd-sourced 3d printed sculpture project, Edgar Allen Print, designed by one of my friends, Ryan Kittleson. I’m also looking forward to the roll out TinkerineU, an online STEAM curriculum to teach 3d printing and integrate it in the classroom.

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!