3D printed sugar / The Sugar Lab

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The Sugar Lab由夫妇Kyle 和Liz von Hasseln于2011年在洛杉矶创办。这是一个很小的3D定制打印糖点公司。复杂造型的建筑是夫妇二人的共同爱好，The Sugar Lab专门打印定制的复杂造型3D甜点。欢迎和The Sugar Lab沟通（语言和草图均可），共同设计交流，打印属于自己的与众不同的甜点。

The Sugar Lab is a micro-design firm for custom 3D printed sugar. With our background in architecture and our penchant for complex geometry, we’re bringing 3D printing technology to the genre of mega-cool cakes. 3D printing represents a paradigm shift for confections, transforming sugar into an dimensional, structural medium. It makes it possible to design, digitally model and print an utterly original sugar sculpture on top of a cake.

All of our projects are custom. The design process begins from scratch, when we hear from you. Tell us your idea/theme/vibe. Give us a swatch of lace from your gown/a polaroid of the wrought iron gate at your venue/a postcard of your hometown skyline. Or just come to The Sugar Lab and brainstorm with us. It doesn’t even have to be a cake; centerpieces, chandeliers, cupcake toppers, sugar cubes, pie-crust-lattice, grapefruit sweeteners, all possible and possibly awesome.

这样别出心裁的生意源于夫妇的小公司内没有烤箱为朋友烤制生日蛋糕。于是他们尝试了3D打印。最后他们打印了一个3D的蛋糕礼帽，他们的朋友非常喜欢，于是他们开始尝试着发展这项事业。

 

HOW WE GOT STARTED

We’re Kyle and Liz von Hasseln, a husband and wife architectural design team in Los Angeles. The Sugar Lab started about two years ago, when we were graduate students in architecture. We were living in a tiny apartment in Echo Park with a correspondingly tiny outdoor kitchen. We didn’t have an oven, and when we realized that meant we couldn’t bake our friend Chelsea a cake for her birthday, we decided to try to 3D print one, instead. After a period of trial and error (during which her actual birthday came and went!) we managed to print a simple cupcake topper that spelled out ‘Chelsea’ in cursive sugar. Chelsea loved it! We thought other people might like 3D printed sugar, too, so when we graduated last fall, we spent the time to really optimize our process, and we started The Sugar Lab–officially–in our new studio here in Silver Lake. 

有了想法可要付诸实践，否则没有意义，夫妇二人对制作甜点的材料进行研究，尽可能的去找到合适的配比材料进行打印。打印出来的3D甜点无疑就是一个雕塑，十分出众，适合用在正规场合比如婚礼蛋糕装饰，或者以此影响其它甜点制作。这个具有非常大可能性的创意，着实是有趣的创意。

 

OUR PROCESS

After some brainstorming and messy hand sketching, we work to translate our ideas into 3D digital models. Our backgrounds in architecture serve us well during the modeling process, which has a lot to do with structural and material considerations as well as making design moves. We’re always aiming for a sculptural, dimensional form that maximizes what 3D printing brings to sugar.

As for the actual printing process, if you’ve ever made frosting and left the mixing bowl in the sink overnight, you know that moistened sugar gets quite hard. That’s the underlying concept of 3D printing with sugar. We use a mixture of water and alcohol, applied very precisely in a layer-wise manner, to selectively wet and harden the sugar substrate. The process is fundamentally similar to other 3D printing applications, we’ve just optimized the process for resolution and strength with sugar, rather than with a standard 3D printing material.

 

WHATʼS SO COOL ABOUT 3D PRINTED SUGAR?

3D printing transforms sugar into a structural, sculptural element that can interact with food on different terms. 3D printed sugar can be used to sweeten or to ornament, but it can also start to define the form of the food instead of the other way around, or even to support it structurally. For example, we’re very excited to be working right now with some seriously talented cake artists at a well-known bakery in Hollywood to design a four-tiered wedding cake with a 3D printed sugar cake-stand, and 3D printed sugar-tiers supporting traditional cake tiers. What’s exciting for us is, in terms of the possibilities of 3D printed sugar, is howdifferently everyone thinks about how to use it. People are constantly suggestingthings we’ve never thought of, and it’s very fun to try to implement those ideas.

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