Vase Mode Baubles and a little nostalgia! (Patreon)

Happy holidays, wonderful people!

Last minute decorations?  Vase mode to the rescue!

Nice and quick to print, and using very little filament in the process, these vase mode geometric extravaganzas are perfect for hanging on trees, office furniture, or just wearing as a stylish accessory!  

Secret hangy-things

But how do you hang something that's printed in vase mode, since you can't have holes?  Well, in this case, there's a sneaky feature in the geometry, a pair of slots that curve in towards the top and almost meet, close enough that they'll probably end up physically bonded together.  

Spheres of illusion

The main thing of interest in these designs is the illusion of spherical-ness.  These are of course not spheres, those being tricky enough in a conventional print, and not at all doable in vase mode once the angles get shallow.  The profile, in fact, is circular in the middle, but the point where the tangent of that circle hits 45 degrees the profile just tracks a straight line the rest of the way.  

So, why do they look like balls?  Well, you'll notice they all have spiraling features and curves all over the place.  None of those breach that 45 degree limit either, but they fool the eye into seeing more roundness than is perhaps actually there.  The depth and layering helps, too - the visual distance between the outside of the middle and the inside of the bottom is greater than would be allowed by a smooth profile alone, giving more sense of shape to it all.

Nostalgia!

Now, you might notice one or two familiar designs in the baubles - shades of the Reciprocal Vase and the Necromancer's Bottle, specifically.  The geometry is in fact completely different to those original designs, but I couldn't help but draw them in as a nod to past favourites...

Printing Tips

These are vase mode prints, so set your slicer accordingly!  All angles are designed for straightforward printing, so no angles that a conventional vase mode print can't handle. 

And, of course, the designs are all managed so that despite the overlapping layers there are never any "pockets" or similarly un-vase-printable things.

Print Dimensions

Each bauble is 70mm x 70mm on the print bed, and 78mm tall.

File Locations

You'll find this one on dropbox under 705 Vase Mode Baubles

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

Vase mode remains one of my favourite things to work with, and I really do love the specific constraints and challenges it brings.  It does help, though, that it's so quick to iterate through ideas and experiments and see what works :)

Happy bauble-ing! :)

xoxo

Sven.