3D Printed Bauble Lights + Cacti

Happy Friday!! I have been on pins and needles for a month to tell you guys about this project. Settle in cause there is loads of info and inspiration!

One of the biggest hurdles that comes up in my DIYin’ adventures is being able to create the things in my mind. Sometimes little projects (that I’m suuuuper excited about) feel like inventing the hover board. The idea is solid. The actual how to? Mmmmm. Not so solid. Technology is getting crazier by the day, so when the opportunity came up to experiment on the HP Sprout I was all over it. Anything to help these ideas come to life is a-ok with me.

The HP Sprout is an all in one desktop computer that is pushing the limits of what you can do with a home computer. It has the ability to 3D scan almost anything that you can put in front of it. Seriously. Can you even imagine the project possibilities? Let alone the parent referee potential (oh you both want this discontinued Littlest Pet Shop? Let me just duplicate it and then maybe you’ll stop fighting?)   Below is the first thing that I scanned and printed. Its a mini replica of this cute salt shaker that I found at Target.

Adorable? Absolutely, the girls have already taken it over for the above mentioned Littlest Pet Shops.

But aside from miniaturizing something, there has got to me more right?!

Oh-ho-ho my friend, you have no idea. We all love a good cactus, but unfortunately sometimes we love them so much that we kill them…with love. I scanned a cactus cutting using the Sprout  (its mesmerizing!)

 

Then I was able to take that scan, and by duplicating it and manipulating the dimensions, I made a whole new cactus.

Once it was right I sent it over to my Dremel IdeaBuilder and printed it out.

 

My experience with 3D printing was zero. I mean, unless you count the Grey’s Anatomy episode with the dramatic human organ printing situation. I had NO IDEA what to expect. Would it be hard?! Would it take 46 hours?! Would it look stupid?! Is it loud?! You know, the real questions. For real questions I have real answers. It was not hard. Each element that I printed took about 4 hours. There are very light surface lines that can easily be sanded smooth with 300+ grit sandpaper. The printer is very quiet. And its sort of musical. Lots of my projects stared printing during one of my all too frequent 3:30 insomnia-fests.

 

When the little guys were done printing  I glued them to a lit and stuck it inside a terracotta planter.

 

Now I have this adorable cactus that cant be killed!! (The OG cactus clipping is there for comparison!)

 

Cool right?

Ok so, when I say this next project has been years in the making I am not exaggerating at all. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to make these bauble lights that lived in my brain. I knew they needed some show stopping geometric pieces but making them out of wood only resulted in an unrecognizable wonkfest and a very real fear of cutting my fingers off with the saw. I tried paper, ceramic, concrete and time and time again it was just wrong.

I knew that the Sprout could make my dreams come true, but it didn’t happen in the way that I expected. Originally I created the pentagon shape with paper and tried scanning it, but because the shape was perfectly symmetrical no matter what I did, there was always a side missing (by rotating the item during multiple scans it can typically capture all sides.)  The Sprout cameras work sort of like an ultrasound, though the picture on your screen comes up with photograph like colors, it doesn’t sense those (I tried marking different patterns on each side to combat the blank spaces. Ultimately because the shape was exactly the same on all sides it just wasn’t going to work, it needs variation to put the puzzle pieces together.

I was bummed. But motivated.

This project was happening come hell or high water.

Fortunately the folks at HP customer support are fantastic and told me about an app called MeshMixer. There are literally THOUSANDS of free project patterns that you can download and create with. That is how I finally got my geo-shapes.

 

MeshMixer is relatively simple to learn, though I’m sure I’ve just scratched the surface. I was able to make the shapes exactly like I wanted them, with a hole down the center and all. I printed my shapes (Court asked if I was printing a Madonna bra when he saw the cones. That man is full of great ideas.)

 

To finish the lights I drilled holes into some wooden spheres from the craft store. (I totally could have printed those too, I was just itching for some wooden contrast)

 

I also gave some of them a quick coat of natural wood stain (it made a huge difference in the color!)

 

After the stain was dry, I strung all of the white 3D printed pieces + the wooden beads onto my favorite twisted lamp wire and wired the light sockets.

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out.

I want to make 5 million.

My mind is absolutely racing with all of the project possibilities. From functional, like scanning and printing missing hardware from a thrifted dresser. To completely creative like wall art full of different types of succulents, because lets face it: who can actually keep those living walls alive?

The crazy thing is, this is just one side of the HP Sprout, my girls love drawing and painting on it, and there are a bunch of great apps for kids to unleash their creative genius.

3D printing isn’t just for Meredith Grey and Dungeons and Dragons fanatics anymore, its for everyone.

To get more ideas, and see how other creatives are knocking this technology out of the park check them out here! And we put together a quick video so that you can see the Sprout in action!

If you have a question leave it in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer it!

This post is created in partnership with HP.