Our Story
I love ALDI and their specials.
One day I lined up outside the supermarket to battle the hoards for a 3d printer that I’d seen in the brochure. I didn’t know what I was going to do with a cheap 3d printer, but it looked fun. It wasn’t long before I tried 3d printing an architectural model I’d designed, and the idea for fromBIGthings started to form as a way to get back in touch with my architectural studies of years past. I wanted to make buildings that I knew, that connected with what I loved of Sydney, and to reinvigorate my love of architecture .
After studying architecture at the University of Sydney many years before, I became an architectural graduate and worked for a prestigious commercial firm in Sydney. Often, I made the study and quick client models, and it was one of my favourite things to do. After 7 years in professional practice, I left architecture feeling a need to try something different and decided to pursue a completely different career. For 5 years I worked in a different field, always trying new ideas, and only occasionally touching smaller design projects for friends and dabbling in commercial architecture.
One weekend, upon visiting a popular Sydney street market, I realised that I wanted to share some of the models that I had started making on my printer (now named Prints Charming). There seemed to be a distinct lack of unique gifts that celebrated architecture, Sydney landmarks and the built environment and I felt my models might be a good place to start.
The two ideas of model making and gifts that celebrated the architecture of Sydney and Australia came together.
Soon, I stumbled upon a bio-resin and plaster mix that made everything possible.
The buildings you see on this website are just the beginning. There are many left to be made, and a greater exploration of Australia’s wider architectural language is the next step.
After upgrading my 3d printer (named “The Artist formerly known as Prints”), I soon realised that no matter how good my printer got, I still needed to do days of manual sanding and clean-up. I turned to learning about mould making to cast my 3d prints into something repeatable, and started experimenting with plaster models.