This week I tried out two cool services: Ponoko and Spoonflower. Both are new entries in a little niche called desktop manufacturing, where you can design something at your home computer and have it fabricated in small quantities without sacrificing quality or paying heavy setup fees.

Ponoko is basically an online laser cutter. You send them outlines created in Illustrator or Sketchup, and then choose from a menu of materials to have your shapes cut from. A few weeks later, you get a package in the mail! I tested it out with some Morroco-inspired stars that I had lying around my hard drive, and cut them out of yellow acrylic. So if you see me wearing yellow acrylic star earrings, you'll know where they came from. :)

Spoonflower is the same idea, but for textiles. You create a square design that can repeat or tile in any direction and then upload it to the site. Choose the size of fabric you want to print (anywhere from a fat quarter up to three yards) and in a few weeks you have your own fabric to work with! This has been my desktop background for a couple months now, but as fabric its destined to be a pair of pillows in a certain New York lady's new apartment.