Multiple software were used for this project. In order to make my design, I used a Computer-Aided Design Software called Autodesk Fusion 360. PrusaSlicer helped me do the 3D slicing and I used the PRUSA i3 MK3S+ printer to print my designs. The filament I used is the allPHA Colorfabb which is 100% biobased and biodegradable in any biotype.
To find inspiration for my pattern, I started by listing random things that crossed my mind.
After searching images for each of these ideas, I decided to choose to work on snowflakes since the complexity and the variety of its shape inspired me the most. I started looking for a lot of images of different snowflakes in order to design my own snowflake. Here are a few images I took inspiration from.
From these images, I started sketching a few snowflake designs. I decided to make two of them: one with large borders and one with thinner ones. The two should be able to clip to one another. I was a bit worried material the amout of details on each snowflake. They are quite small and might not be visible or even weaken the structure. Here are the sketches I made.
I first needed to get acquainted with the software and print something not too complicated. I decided to follow an online tutorial (http://romaindivozzo.gitlab.io/teaching/fusion360_101/). This allowed me to see how the designs I made on the software would look like once printed.
While doing the 3D slicing of the piece, I noticed my design was 2mm thick. I went back to Fusion 360 to change it to 0.6mm and sliced the new design. However, I forgot to transfer that new file to the SD card and printed the wrong file. This led to a warping problem. By the time I realized it was almost the end of the print. I still interrupted the print. Here is how the design turned out.
After doing the tutorial, I wanted to try implementing an easy design of my own. I designed two smiley faces and printed them. The winking face was printed with a 0.3mm thickness. The end result was a little too thin, I would add 0.1 or 0.2mm for the next prints.
The heart-eyed emoji (inspired by the upcoming Valentine's Day) was 0.4mm thick which was perfect for this design. However, considering the level of details of my snowflake design, I decided that I wanted a 0.5mm thickness for it.
Navigating freely in the software made me discover some useful tools and allowed me to transfer my ideas into the platform with more ease. This helped me get a sense of what I could achieve in the limited amount of time. I now felt ready to try and implement my first snowflake!
I now had to transfer my vision from the sketches to the software. I simplified some of the details I had on the drawings to make them easier to implement on Fusion. As you will see below, the final designs of the snowflakes are slightly inspired from the flowers, I mentioned before in the ideation section. At some point, my design made the software very slow. Each change would take more than 30 seconds to load if it loaded, otherwise, the app would just crash. I still managed to finish both designs which are the following.
I started by printing snowflakes of multiple sizes: 5.5cm, 8cm, and 9 cm with a 0.5mm thickness. The first layer was 0.2mm thick and the next ones were 0.15mm thick.
As you can see in the last image, the snowflakes that came out the best were the small ones. Some will argue that the imperfections on the big snowflake makes it visually appealing but regarding the instructions of the project, this makes the structure of the snowflake very weak and hard to clip without breaking. Moreover, I wanted to have big snowflakes so I gave it a few more trials while changing the layers' thickness in PrusaSlicer to 0.3mm and 0.1mm for the first layer and 0.15 for the next layers.
After a few prints -fails- with different parameters, the best fitting parameters were still 0.2mm + 0.15mm which worked only on small snowflakes. I then decided to shrink my design from 9cm to 5.5cm a piece. During each of the failed prints, I also slightly modified the width of the snowflake's slits and branches. These several prints allowed me to test and find the perfect size for them. I now had a working design and could finally launch mass printing! I printed the large border design with a 0.5mm width and the thin border with a 0.6mm width to make it stronger.
A lot of snowflakes!
Here are different ways to assemble the snowflakes.
If you assemble them the classic way as in the first assembling picture, you can assemble 8 snowflakes, 4 of each type, to make a snowball. It is inspired by the shape of a football.
By assembling them the other way, you get another structure that is flat. By playing with both, you can play with volume and cover flat surfaces as well as round surfaces.
Made by mixing multiple ways to clipse the snowflakes together. A great way to add a little plus to your outfits.
Made by mixing multiple ways to clipse the snowflakes together. The material bends well while maintaining its shape. It suits other body parts well too.
You do not want to spend any more money buying ceramic pots that your landlord might throw away when your plant dies? This is perfect cover for your ugly plant pots.
The original design of the snowball makes it a good decoration item by itself but is even better when paired with some lights.
Very practical to store all the snowflakes in one place and not lose any.
