'Rugroden's 3-Ds'

The Winter Farmers Market at Farmamerica was the busiest it’s ever been on Dec. 20 There were wall-to-wall vendor tables offering items brought in by local merchants, farmers, experts and hobbyists. One of those hobbyists is only 14; his name is Oliver Rugroden, and he deals in 3-D printed objects.

 

“This is my first time at the Winter Farmers Market, I worked the other one out at the Waseca fairgrounds over the summer, I was next to my mom’s stand.” On his table was a wide assortment of 3-D printed objects, all toys of some sort, dragons, dragon eggs with baby dragons inside, octopuses, tiny turtles, snakes, cats, other little animals, a ghost, and a variety of fidget spinner items. He picked a little half-inch-high blue dog that was solid plastic, but it looked like a tiny balloon animal. He compared it to a giant snake that was about 24 inches long and said, “The little balloon dog took 15 minutes, the big snake took 14 hours to print out.” The dog was a solid blue color, the snake was white, orange, and ivory. Rugroden continued, “The dog is faster not just because it’s small but because it’s only one color; the snake takes so long because between colors the printer has to exclude two excess balls of filament–that alone takes 30 seconds.”

 

Rugroden says his grandmother got him his first 3-D printer, “That was a smaller one and it doesn’t work anymore. My mom got me the bigger one I’m using now.” Rugroden first got his start because he saw someone in Mankato selling their 3-D stuff, “I saw this at a trade show over in Mankato with my mom. I have a couple of hobbies that need funding and this can always lead into a career as I get older.” The way his printer works is with an app on his phone, “Through my app, when I find a design I like, I download the file, adjust the colors to what I want and then I hit print and wait.”

 

He was asked about the dragon eggs, which kind of resembled pinecones. He picked one up, screwed the top off, took out the little dragon inside and found a few plastic pieces stuck to the dragon’s face. “I guess I missed a little bit of excess plastic. Sometimes the printer leaves a little bit extra and it has to be scraped off,” he explained.

 

His parents were selling a few tables over. He indicated them and said, “I want to give a shout-out to my dad, Jesse, and my mom, Krista ,who sells here too, “She’s the owner of Barefoot Lane MN at barefootlanemn@gmail.com. She sells baked goods and you can find her on Facebook.”

 

Oliver emphasizes that “Rugroden’s 3-Ds” aren’t going to be going away anytime soon. He says he plans to keep selling, so anyone interested in futuristic art from a Waseca teenager can seek him out at the Farmers Market.