Website: Acts of Gnome
My Role: Founder. Photographer.

Earlier this year, I started working at MakerBot. Upon starting my work on the Thingiverse redesign, I came across this awesome 3D scan of a gnome by Tony Buser (an awesome, gnome loving coworker of mine as it turns out). I had the idea of just randomly hiding tiny gnomes around cities that I visit and around NYC. It’s transformed a bit from then, creating slightly larger gnomes (about 55mm tall) and even handing them out to friends for their travels. Next year I hope to print even more and mail them out to people to hide. The goal of the project was to bring some smiles to people who randomly find these little guys and maybe even take a photo of them if they do find one.

The site itself runs on a Tumblr blog and was lucky enough to have the talented illustrator Virginia Poltrack design up a gnome to use as the avatar/mascot for the project. Each gnome is 3D printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2, using PLA material.

Here are just a few of the gnomes I’ve hidden around so far. Each photo was taken with a Canon 60D, 10-20mm lens:

Gnome #1 – Bay Ridge, Brooklyn NY

Gnome #5 – SoHo, Manhattan NY

Gnome #6 – Chinatown, Manhattan NY

Gnome #13 – Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota