William La Pierre is the second-generation owner of Clark Funeral Home in Yorktown. The lifelong Yorktown resident deals in death—funerals, embalming, the whole bit. But today, as the owner of Mini 3D ME, a 3D printing business that scans people and prints miniature figurine replicas of them, he’s dealing more with beginnings than endings.
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MINI 3D ME FIGURINES |
La Pierre leaped into 3D printing in December. A lifelong techno-geek, he sensed an emerging market and purchased advanced equipment: the Artec 3D Scanner and ProJet 660Pro 3D Printer. His company is one of three in the world operating this combo, and together they produce “mini me” figurines in shocking detail—buttons and zippers, facial hair, tattoos, fabric folds and textures, you name it. “Many other 3D printing companies create mini-me figurines, but the cheaper scanners/printers produce blurry figurines,” says Chelsea Waller, the company’s spokeswoman. “There is no comparison.”
The applications are proving endless. Couples are lining up for wedding cake toppers, mothers are requesting 3D family portraits (a figurine for each family member), sports teams are eschewing traditional photos in favor of lifelike replicas, architects are requesting 3D models of homes they’ve designed, and Aviva Drescher, a star of Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise and Mini 3D ME’s first celebrity client, recently ordered a pair of figurines to display at a book signing.
“The initial reaction of the local community to our products was shock for how realistic our figurines look,” says Waller. “When we go to trade shows, we take a model with us (usually one of our customers or friends) and their mini me. We have the model dress in the same outfit they chose their mini me to [wear] … [people] cannot fathom how much the figurine looks exactly like them.”
A standard 4-inch figurine sets you back $150. Right now Mini 3D ME operates remotely (the scanner is portable, so they’ll come to you), but a dedicated store is opening in Yorktown this month.
If you’re interested in ordering a figurine, or any other 3D printing, visit Mini 3D ME’s online here.
