What do neon green, cube earrings and some life-saving medical devices have in common?

They come from the same technology: 3D printing.

It's not quite that simple. Various creations take different 3D printers, but the concept, on display at DebraElizabeths' in Wiscasset on November 30, is the same: A computer-aided design or “CAD” file tells the printer what to do, said Sarah Boisvert of 3DMicroFactory.

That can mean fun, light-weight jewelry, which Boisvert began making in the past year, or the medical devices and other industrial prototypes that make up most of her work.

Boisvert and companies she has co-founded have been involved in a series of innovative projects. One device, to remove cervical lesions, stands to help many thousands of women in Africa for whom pap smears aren't available, she said.

“The work we do really impacts people's lives,” Boisvert said.

The potential good that 3D printing can do appealed to Boisvert when she entered the field in 1986, just a few years after its invention.

“It was about taking a technology that already existed and seeing how to use it to help people's lives,” she said.

Boisvert also works with FabLabHub, a national nonprofit that serves as a resource for people looking to get started in 3D printing for business, school, artistic or other uses.

The technology has some common ground with Boisvert's past studies in piano performance. Music and 3D printing are both high in structure and logic, she said, between visits with customers at Deb Schaffer's store on Main Street.

Boisvert's jewelry-making demonstrations at DebraElizabeths' were part of Small Business Saturday, when shoppers are urged to forgo the big retailers.

Schaffer, who's now selling Boisvert's jewelry at the store, said the 3D technology amazed her.

“It’s so now,” she said.