Lantern

Intention

My goal is to make a 3D printed plant holder as a gift to my mother. I used Fusion 360 to do the 3D design and NVBot to slice and print the product.

Context

My mother loves succulent plants so I want to customize a plant holder as a gift to her. And since the Chinese new year is coming up, I want to add some festivity into the design by making the plant holder look like a Chinese lantern. Here is an example of a Chinese lantern.

Process + Procedure

I did a quick sketch of the plant holder, but I ran into a lot of problems when translating my ideas into the 3d design. Because I want the lantern to have vertical ridges but I was not sure what the orientation of the sketch should be. With Louise's help, I was experimenting with creating repeating pattern along different paths.

Product

Before paint -> After paint

Reflection

I have never worked with 3D printers or designing for the purpose of 3D printing. I learned a lot about lofting, combining bodies, and section analysis.

If I had more time, I would customize the product by adding words to the side. I would also think about how to slice the object differently to make the sides more rigid. 

Collaboration or Attribution

Thank you to Louise for helping me figure out translate my idea into design in fusion.