Candle holder and small plant pot

- the problem -

A couple of months ago I bought a beautiful candle holder to light up my room a little bit, because my room is quite dark during winter. I soon found out that the hole where the candle was supposed to go in was way too big. So I though “what to do now?”. Well, I figured I could turn my candle holder upside down and then use it as a small vase - the bottom is open. My flowers got a little damaged because some of the sharp edges, so I sanded it a bit down, but I still wasn’t pleased with the object. The ‘turning my candle holder into a vase’ wasn’t such a good idea.

Like I already said the problem with my room is, that it is dark. My plants never survive in the autumn and winter, so they grow and last only in the spring and summer. The thing is that when my plants die in the winter I am stuck with unused plant pots (and i definitely do not have the storage room for some extra plant pots. I needed an object that changes his function with the seasons.

- the solution -

At first I wanted to make 2 parts that I can put in and take out of the object during the seasons. The one would go into the candle hole - making the hole fit for a candle. The other object would function as a plant pot and could hang into bottom. But it wasn’t really aesthetically pleasing after I made some models and it didn’t solve the problem of the object not being stable. So my solution was to make a new object inspired by the one I have and to make the object more stable.

1.1

settings:
material: PLA
infill: 20%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: grid
duration: 3hrs

feedback:
I didn't measured it right apparently, because it is too big for my object. Also the top layer wasn't round enough.

1.2

settings:
material: PLA
infill: 20%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: grid
duration: 3hrs

feedback:
So the size here is perfect, but the top layer is to round and thick.

1.3

settings:
material: PLA
infill: 20%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: grid
duration: 4hrs

feedback:
Size here is perfect for a candle.

So here is the moment that I figured out that I did not want to go further with this. So here are some sketches of the object that I wanted to make:

I was sketching ears, but they didn't have a function. So I started wondering how I could have the aesthetic of ears, but still adding a function to it. And that's when I thought of the stability of the product, what still was missing. That is when the final product was born ;)

2.0

The hardest part of this whole assignment was figuring out how to make my mold. I wanted it to be open on both sides so that there could fit a candle and a plant in it. So here I have final idea for the mold.

2.1

settings:
material: PLA
scale: 60%
infill: 10%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: triangles
duration: 8hrs
bottom layer: off

Feedback

When i wanted to put the mold together I found out that my keys weren't aligned and that caused my mold not to close properly.
So I made the key holes a little bigger by hand.

3.1

settings:
material: PLA
scale: 60%
infill: 20%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: triangles
duration: 1hrs

3.2

settings:
material: PLA
scale: 60%
infill: 10%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: triangles
duration: 3hrs


feedback:
form is not releasing.

3.3

settings:
material: PLA
scale: 60%
infill: 10%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: triangles
duration: 3hrs


feedback:
it had a lot of holes in the print so I filled it with wood filler. Also it didn't release as it should. So I poured it another time and now with a screw so I could pull it out.

here I am pouring my last piece of the mold. Making it a three-part mold.

4.1

settings:
material: PLA
scale: 60%
infill: 20%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: triangles
duration: 3hrs

I wanted to print the main mold another time and now with the keys alligned

4.2

settings:
material: PLA
scale: 60%
infill: 10%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: grid
duration: 2hrs

4.3

settings:
material: PLA
scale: 60%
infill: 10%
nozzle: 0.6 mm
infill pattern: grid
bottom layer: off
duration: 8hrs

fits perfectly!