Usually, the market rate you hear about any jewellery product turns out to be very different from its original price. Ever wondered why? Well that’s because on an average, a piece of jewellery is 13 times more expensive than its original price, which then goes on to add the costs of the long chain of middlemen, expensive marketing campaigns and other miscellaneous costs.
But with a medium like Zazzy coming in place, these costs are about to go down, drastically!
What is Zazzy?
For all those who aren’t aware; Amsterdam-based start-up – Zazzy is a medium that gives Jewellery designers or anyone, the leverage to design and customize their own 3D-printed jewellery. Founded in 2013, the portal is a prodigy of founders – Gert Jan Spriensma & Martijn van der Veen.
The beauty of such a portal is that; unlike earlier, one does not have to depend on whatever available in the market and can simply design something of their own by just adding a text, a brand new design, or by buying from the unique and innovative list of designs which aren’t yet famous in the market. By doing so, the makers, intentionally or unintentionally are also empowering the masses to become affordably self-dependant in terms of jewellery.
The 3D printing that you receive from Zazzy is actually not done by the company themselves, but they work with multiple printing houses across the world, which includes some of the reputed ones such as exOne and Shapeways.
Basically, all what Zazzy is doing is giving both the parties (customer & their 3D printing partners) a devoted platform with simplified tools for their requirements and is simply acting as a mediator between the two.
Till date; Zazzy has already helped over 60,000 users to design their necklaces, bracelets and rings and overall more than 200,000 designs have been created since the platform first started.
Excited?? Wondering how to go about it?
Let’s show you how it’s done?
Their functioning is pretty much self-explanatory. The users ideate, design or choose the jewellery and Zazzy 3D prints it.
And their process goes like this:
- First, choose if you wish to either create a design from scratch or you want to pick some kind of jewellery from their collections
- If you choose from their collections then, edit the same with what you have in mind
- Customize your piece
- Then choose a material from their list which includes:
- Colourful Nylons (Classic Black, Coral Red, Hot Pink, Royal Blue & Violet Purple),
- Gold-plated Brass,
- Sterling Silver,
- Bronze, and
- Shiny Stainless Steel
- Next, click on “Save & Preview” button to see your design.
- For the benefit of the users further more; the makers have also included a rare feature with a rather clever preview function with every collection, which helps to visualize what your final piece will look like. This feature offers a photorealistic image of your final piece.
- Lastly, if you are happy with what you see then, add it to your cart & follow the steps for payment & then delivery.
- From the time you place the order, it usually takes around 3 to 4 weeks for the product to reach your place and a flat rate of €2.50 for international untracked postage is also charged.
Latest Updates
Recently, Zazzy again made it to the headlines when it announced the launch of its soon-to-come brand new marketplace – Zazzy.co. With the help of their marketplace, instead of just buying jewellery, one also gets the leverage of selling their jewellery to others as well.
The design, sale, display (listing), sharing, and buying of the jewellery still remains absolutely free of cost and additionally, there is also no limit to the number of campaigns you wish to launch.
It is kind of similar to a “Teespring” but for 3D printed jewellery, simply because, just like the custom t-shirt platform, Zazzy customers can also sell to their followers and can also use it for multiple other purposes as well.
The benefit here is that; the designers will set their own prices and will get to control their own profit margins, and what the company would do for them is that – it will provide them with near-to-immediate photorealistic previews of the designs which can be used while listing or sharing of their items with others.
The company has high hopes with their new platform and believes that it will open immense opportunities for the artists and designers who are looking to expand their portfolios, and for others like marketers, bloggers, tastemakers, etc. this will act as a much desired, organized & dedicated platform to add to their own collections of branded merchandise.
This marketplace of theirs should be ready to go live by the end of the month, and for now it has been made available, only for preview.
So far, Zazzy has received almost half a million in angel funding from a number of investors, including angels such as Ilko Bosman, Marcel Beemsterboer, Onno Bakker, Jan-Joost Rueb & Floris Rost van Tonningen; some of whom have founded companies like eBuddy, Freedom of Creation (acquired by 3D Systems), Hyves and Vakantieveilingen.
Lastly, the company is also working on plans to grab opportunities in the U.S. and may even consider relocating as well in the next six months.
