3D Printing

Make a Great First Impression – 3D Printed Keepsakes for Your Baby

Most of us have our baby photographs. Either they’re stashed away somewhere to be brought out occasionally or they’re displayed proudly somewhere in our parents’ home. Those born in the late-eighties, nineties and on, would be more likely to also have baby videos, in progressively better quality. And those born in the late noughties and on, of the new millennium, 3D printing is quite likely to bring an added dimension, as it’s been doing in most areas, to preserving their childhood memories. Photographs, videos….and now 3D printed hand or feet prints.

instapro3dInstapro3D, a New Delhi-based startup for 3D modeling and printing services in India, has recently launched its 3D Keepsake service for new or young parents. In a country of 1.3 billion people, where between 29 – 34 babies are born every single minute, a service such as this has quite the potential. Megha Bhaiya, Founder & CEO at Instapro3D, believes in this potential,

“The birth of a child happens with great celebrations in our country. Young and new parents are becoming extremely fond of preserving every memory right from the pregnancy stage till years after the child is born and they’re constantly looking for newer ways to do it. 3D printing has made getting the hand or feet impressions of children very simple and accessible to every parent. The fact that you can freeze a memory of your child forever in 3D models and memorabilia to cherish throughout life is quite priceless. From the parents end, all they need to do is send us inked hand or foot impression and wait for the memorabilia to be delivered in a couple of days.” 

The process is fairly straightforward. Once the scanned/inked impression is received, photoshop is used to clean up the image, sharpen the edges and remove aberrations. The image is then darkened to help with its conversion from a 2D image to a 3D printable file. As Megha points out, there are certain advantages to 3D printing this other than the degree of personalization it brings.

“The beauty of getting this 3D printed is that you can send it to us remotely as it does not require our physical presence unlike in other ways where you need the child to be present to take the impression onto the mold.”

hand feet impressions

They even have the colored 3D printed hand or feet prints framed and labelled with the child’s name, making it an end-product ready to display at home or for gifting. Although Instapro3D provides its professional CAD services for engineering, product design, architecture and jewellery, the 3D Keepsake is the first product that the New Delhi -based company is launching.

hand feet 3d prints

There seem to be multiple ways to further customize the 3D Keepsake and surely, as demand grows, capturing hand or feet prints is bound to find far more applications beyond memorabilia, and not just for kids, but for adults too.