Hop to it this Easter with these four springtime 3D prints

Mar 28, 2018 | By Tess

With a seemingly never-ending winter now thawing out, it’s finally starting to feel like spring. Trees are budding, flowers are timidly blooming, and shop aisles are overloaded with chocolate bunnies and eggs.

To get into the spirit of the new season, here are some fun 3D prints that are sure to liven up your home for Easter weekend.

Articulated 3D printed animals

To mark the coming of Spring (which officially started last week but is only really convincing me now), here are some totally endearing articulated animals that you can reproduce on your 3D printer.

The first, designed by Thingiverse user [8ran], is an articulated butterfly with bendable wings. The 3D printed butterfly, which has now been “made” over 140 times, should be printed with a 15% rectilinear infill, 0.2 mm resolution, and with no supports or rafts.

The maker behind the spring-themed print designed the butterfly using Tinkercad and was inspired by other articulated animals on Thingiverse. “I can't get enough of these articulated animals and wanted to try making one,” [8ran] writes. “My daughter is floored by the idea that we can contribute something back to Thingiverse and that people all over the world can now print this.”

Maker [Artline_N] drew inspiration from the popular “Flexi Rex” dinosaur to make an adorable articulated 3D printed bunny. The bendable 3D printed rabbit should also be printed with 0.2 mm resolution and 15% infill.

3D printed Easter eggs

Though we’ve featured a ton of fun 3D printed Easter eggs on previous lists, we wanted to highlight a recent addition to Thingiverse: a set of intricately designed 3D printable eggs. The collection, designed by [Antonin_Nosek], comprises 12 egg models, each distinguished by a popular 3D printing aesthetic.

There are voronoi, low poly, wireframe, and Minecraft eggs, to name but a few. Once again, print instructions call for 15% infill and 0.2 mm resolution. (There are, however special parameters for the Minecraft egg, which needs supports, and the voronoi eggs, which will turn out best with a print speed of 200 mm/s.) You can find the full printing instructions and free STL files here.

3D printed planters

To me, nothing quite says springtime like greenery—both in nature and around the home. If you haven’t already, spruce up your home with a DIY 3D printed planter. This cute bunny planter could be 3D printed and used as a chocolate egg holder this weekend and then turned into an adorably plant holder. Versatile, huh?

For a less cutesy option, here is a chic 3D printable hexagon planter designed specifically for holding succulents. The planter was designed by [Colleeniebikini] using Autodesk Fusion 360 and can be 3D printed with a resolution of 0.3 mm and with varied infills. For this make, we suggest printing a few versions of the planter in some springtime colors!

3D printed vases

If you’re more into flowers than succulents or shrubs, here are some beautiful 3D printed vases that have us buzzing.

This curved honeycomb vase uploaded by [eggnot] ticks all the boxes: not only does it hold plants, but its design is inspired by bees and nature. The model was designed in Blender 3D and comes in a variety of slightly different versions, which makers can play with to get print settings just right.

Thingiverse maker [Foltak] also found inspiration in nature for designing a 3D printed vase, this time from butterflies.

“The butterfly egg vase design is based on the natural structure of actual butterfly eggs,” writes the maker. “I recommend printing in translucent filament so that the structure and liquid inside create a better effect. I also recommend you coat the inside with a water-resistant layer to make it watertight.”

The delicate 3D printed vase would look divine with a bunch of fresh wildflowers in it. Maybe it will even draw the attention of some real butterflies…

Posted in Fun with 3D Printing

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