Grand Prize Winner to Appear at Special Live Studio 360 with MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis on December 17

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — December 11, 2013 — Trimming the tree just took on a whole new meaning with new 3D printed ornaments submitted in the recent Thingiverse and WNYC/PRI’s Studio 360 Ornament Challenge. More than 250 original ornament designs were submitted in the design challenge and ten finalists were selected.

Each finalist will receive a spool of MakerBot PLA Filament, a Thingiverse t-shirt, and have their designs featured on Thingiverse.com, and in the MakerBot retail stores in New York, Boston and Greenwich, Conn. In addition, the grand prize winner will be unveiled and the designer will join MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis at “Science Fair: Studio 360 in 3D,” a live event hosted by Kurt Andersen at WNYC’s Greene Space in New York on December 17, 2013.

MakerBot and Thingiverse teamed up with the Peabody Award-winning public radio show Studio 360, hosted by cultural critic and author Kurt Andersen and produced by WNYC and PRI, to co-sponsor the challenge.

To find out who the Grand Prize winner of the Thingiverse Ornament Challenge is, watch a live video webcast of Studio 360 on December 17, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. (ET).

The ten finalists are:

Blizzard of Customizable, Mailable Snowflake Ornaments by laird
Anyone can 3D print a gigantic variety of a unique snowflake ornaments using this customizable design. Choose a number up to 99999999 and see what pattern your snowflake will be! Print a flat one or assemble three together into a snowflake orb.

Christmas Mouse by GeirJansen
Adorable mice 3D print in a few minutes and will nibble up any crumbs Santa leaves behind.

Dancing Snowman Ornament by someandy
This jolly snowman prints in place and requires no assembly to start dancing right off the build plate!

The Elf aka Little Helper Ornament by christinachun
A remix of an earlier character, this cranky old elf is the perfect Little Helper to decorate your tree.

Gyrornament by Doodle_Monkey
3D print, snap off the built-in support structure, and watch the concentric layers spin freely around the central snowflake.

The Impossible Castle by dutchmogul
Inspired by a game the creator is designing, these pieces function as a cloudscape mobile to be hung from your tree.

Lockable Present Ornament by jijimath
Lock away little presents until Christmas morning in this fabulous little gift box. The locking device prints and assembles easily. Hide the key until it's time to open presents!

Snowflake Bauble by MakeALot
Each time you customize this ornament, the script generates eight random snowflakes. Print in MakerBot Translucent PLA Filament with only two shells and 0% infill for a sparkly holiday treat!

Snowflake Icosahedron Ornament by pdragy
Inspired by "ITSPHUN shapes ( itsphun.com) and Mother Nature," these 3D modular geometric snowflake orbs use clean, simple notches to hold the delicate, individually printed snowflakes together.

Spiral Sphere Ornament by kowomike
This customizable ornament design allows you to choose the size of your orb, the number of spiral "ribbons" decorating it, and whether you want one or two helixes running in different directions around it.

“Judging all of these amazing 3D printed holiday ornaments sure put us in a holiday mood,” noted Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. “Ornaments are always fun to create and often have special meaning to individuals and families, so it is awesome to see all of the holiday ornaments that the Thingiverse community came up with to 3D print and share with family and friends.”

“As a kid who watched The Jetsons and Star Trek, I was dazzled and fascinated by cutting-edge technology,” said Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen. “Since 3D printing has become a reality, I’m eager to expose our audience to the technology. Doing so with 3D printed holiday ornaments is something tangible and also really cool.”