New York, Jan. 16: People who can take a hunk of wood or lump of clay and fashion something fantastic with their bare hands have powers of creation that we don’t quite understand. But we have found a way to identify better with them — by using a 3D printer.

As far as I am concerned, 3D printers are the best thing to come out of the labs in a long time because they allow for the manipulation of reality instead of virtual space. And although they sound downright magical, they work just as it seems they might.

Someone designs an object — a cookie cutter, cup or canister — on a computer and then sends that design to a 3D printer. The printer does not draw a picture of the item on a piece of paper, as an ordinary printer would do. Instead, it physically builds the object, by squirting melted plastic out of nozzles. The plastic follows the computer design, and layer by layer, the printer constructs the object.

For years, large manufacturers have relied on hulking, expensive 3D printers to make prototype parts for airplanes, cars and machinery. Recently, though, a new crop of 3D printers and services has arrived to make this type of technology affordable for consumers. And so a true 3D printer craze has started to take hold of the techno-hobbyist clan. People are assembling 3D printers from kits and then making toys, exotic ornaments, chess sets and toothpaste tube squeezers.

Some people replicate common objects, while others put their own spin on things. Should you choose to enter the 3D realm, the ways to get started range from pretty easy to “hunker down in the garage workshop for a couple of weeks” hard.

Here’s a look at how you can get going, and perhaps take holiday gift-giving into your own hands later this year.

If you want a taste of what 3D printing is all about before committing to acquiring a 3D printer, then a service like that provided by Shapeways is a good starting point.

Shapeways is more or less the Amazon.com of 3D printing. You go to its website and pick objects that other people have designed, tweak these designs or use the company’s web software to design something from scr-atch. Then, you order the product, and Shapeways builds it on high-end 3D printers. A few days later, the object arrives at your doorstep.

You will find all manner of ready-to-print objects on the Shapeways site, like decorative egg holders, odd art pieces, an iPod Shuffle neckband and jewellery.

Shapeways can print objects in various materials, including plastics of various colours, glass and even stainless steel.

Courageous types will want their own 3D printer.

If you have $15,000 or so, you can buy a pretty decent machine that would fit in an office. If you have $100,000, you can get something truly awesome, but you’ll need a warehouse to store it. The rest of us will be checking out the hobbyist kits that run in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.

The downside of hobbyist kits is that they are built by engineers, with instructions written by engineers. Healthy helpings of resolve and patience are required to get one of these things working. The upside, thou-gh, is that you have a cool 3D printer.

Your neighbours will think of you as a mysterious creature fr-om the future, and your children will love your ability to print toys on demand.

3D comes to photo printers

* At last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, the company showed off the new, as-yet-unnamed capability, which will be included as part of thefeature set of its new $100 ESP C310 model, to be introduced this spring.

* The all-in-one printer will come with two paper-frame
3D glasses with special 3D-processing software.

* To create a 3-D image, users will be instructed to shoot the same scene twice, with the second offset about 2 to 3 inches from the first.

* The software (Windows only) will then meld the two images into one frame that can be printed.