The ‘maker movement’

As the price continues to drop on 3-D printers, TechShops spring up across the country and VCs start getting interested, the “maker movement” or “DIY movement” is gaining steam.

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The “maker movement” is attracting the attention of the venture capital community, as Alexandra Dean of Bloomberg Businessweek reported in February. In this photo, Duncan Frazier of Bit Banger Labs, from left, Peter Semmelhack, chief executive officer of Bug Labs Inc., Amol Sarva, chief executive officer of Peek, and Bre Pettis, co-founder of 3-D printer-maker MakerBot Industries, participate in a panel discussion at the TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2012 conference in New York on May 23, 2012.

Jennifer S. Altman / Bloomberg

Israeli President Shimon Peres (center) learns about the Printrbot 3-D printer from Brook Drumm (left) at the Launch Conference in San Francisco on March 7, 2012. Peres spoke at the event, which is an annual high-tech conference of 2,000 entrepreneurs, investors, executives and technology experts.

Eric Risberg / AP

Mark Jackson of Dasi Solutions shows a potential customer a model made through a photo polymer printing system at the International Manufacturing Conference and Expo in downtown Cleveland on Feb. 14, 2012. The system takes a CAD-drawn model and transfers it to a printer, which creates a 3-D model using photo polymer acrylics.

Amy Sancetta / AP

$Jan Torgersen, a dissertation student at the Vienna University of Technology, operates a newly developed 3-D laser printer, in Vienna on March 29, 2012. Torgersen and colleagues have set a new world speed record for creating 3-D nano objects. The university team created their grain of sand-size structures in four minutes, a fraction of the time that other items have previously been printed.$

Jan Torgersen, a dissertation student at the Vienna University of Technology, operates a newly developed 3-D laser printer, in Vienna on March 29, 2012. Torgersen and colleagues have set a new world speed record for creating 3-D nano objects. The university team created their grain of sand-size structures in four minutes, a fraction of the time that other items have previously been printed.

Herwig Prammer / Reuters

Jasper Blackful, a member of TechShop Detroit, shows a fishing rod holder he is constructing at the fabrication studio in Allen Park, Mich., on May 4, 2012. The member-based fabrication studio gives dues-paying members access to industry-standard machines and technologies to build prototypes and launch businesses.

Rebecca Cook / Reuters

Blackful uses a vertical mill to construct a fishing rod holder at the TechShop facility in Allen Park, Mich., on May 4, 2012. The company is one of the leading brands in what has come to be known as the “maker movement,” or the “DIY movement,” which involves individuals manufacturing their own prototypes, inventions, tools or other products using a variety of methods, including traditional manufacturing tools and more advanced technologies such as 3-D printers.

Rebecca Cook / Reuters

TechShop CEO Mark Hatch poses for photos at TechShop in San Francisco on March 22, 2011. Modeled after gyms, TechShop is attracting members who pay as little as $100 a month to use industrial-strength equipment to invent whatever they can imagine.

Ben Margot / AP

“Dream Coach” Cody Culbertson works on his motorcycle at TechShop in San Francisco on March 22, 2011. Dream coaches oversee the TechShops, maintaining equipment and general upkeep of the shop while assisting members in leveraging the technology to realize their projects.

Ben Margot / AP

A plastic sculpture of Walt Disney rests on a work table at TechShop in San Francisco on March 22, 2011.

Ben Margot / AP

TechShop members work on projects at TechShop in San Francisco on March 22, 2011.

Ben Margot / AP

Members work on woodworking projects at TechShop in San Francisco on March 22, 2011. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) <a data-xslt='_http' href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/report-techshop-to-team-up-with-defense-department-darpa/2012/05/23/gJQALrULlU_blog.html'>is teaming up with the company</a> to build two new TechShops — one near Washington, D.C., and the other near Pittsburgh.

Members work on woodworking projects at TechShop in San Francisco on March 22, 2011. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is teaming up with the company to build two new TechShops — one near Washington, D.C., and the other near Pittsburgh.

Ben Margot / AP

TechShop members work on projects in San Francisco on March 22, 2011. The “maker movement" continues to gain steam as individuals take it upon themselves to realize the products they most wish to see in the world.

Ben Margot / AP

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