3D Printing Pen Developed in Somerville Attracts Over $1.8 Million on Kickstarter

A creative product developed at Somerville's Artisan's Asylum launched a capital-raising Kickstarter campaign on Feb. 19 with the goal of raising $30,000 by March 25. As of Monday night, it had raised over $1.8 million from more than 20,000 backers.

The product is called 3Doodler, which bills itself as a "the world's first 3D printing pen." It's the creation of WobbleWorks LLC co-founders Peter Dilworth and Maxwell Bogue, according to the product's website.

In addition to raising a ton of money on Kickstarter, a crowdsourcing funding site where backers can invest small amounts in projects they find worthy, 3Doodler has also received a ton of press, according to its website.

It's been featured by Wired, CNet, Fast Company, and The Telegraph and The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, among other places.

The 3Doodler looks kind of like a pen-shaped hot glue gun. Feeding on thin, colored strips of plastic-like substance, which it heats up (like a hot glue gun), it allows users to draw images in the air.

A video about the 3Doodler shows people drawing a three-dimensional Eiffel Tower and cooky-looking creatures with the pen, for instance.

Although it's billed as an affordable 3D printing device, as Wired points out it seems most useful for arts and crafts stuff: 3-D models, jewelry, ornaments, fridge magnets, customizing iPhone cases, etc.

At $75, it's priced for crafty types, and the Kickstarter introductory video says Dilworth and Bogue already have a factory lined up in China to make thousands of 3Doodlers for the market.