3D Printed Flexi Animals 2025: Progressions 2

 

Challenge: To produce a unique flexi fidget toy.

Background: We started documenting this process early this term when a student who was looking for extension activities wanted to create her own version of the flexi animal, and we used a process created by a former student in the form of flipped media.

The student has progressed her design to the stage that is shown left.   In it the student has created a four step flexi toy - not of course in the shape of an animal, but in the shape of a Christmas Tree.   The student adapted the design as it was a ploy for a product for our 2025 Market Day Project.   This was done as the student reasoned that this would be an incentive for someone to purchase another item (a candle) as they would be able to also have a Christmas decoration.   We have detailed a huge amount of Christmas themed decorations and each year we update them on this blog.   You can click on link to examples here.

The student is at the point that the intention of the initial project was to master the art of flexi-animal making and has nearly completed these.   The technique that she has applied to this project can then be related to others and the a full range of designs could be created.

The same process and learning was applied to the caterpillar design, featuring a students name shown left.   The font for the name was the start created for each caterpillar segment.   The student has learned from experience that they have needed to increase the size of the linking pieces.

Size: The Christmas Tree measures 100mm across at its widest point, is 120mm high and currently 10mm thick.  We could potentially reduce the latter and this would reduce the print time considerably.   The caterpillar is 170mm long and is 50mm high and 10mm thick, again this could potentially be reduced to make this print less chunky.

Timeframe: Two and a quarter hours for the print as it stands, for the Christmas tree.   The Caterpillar has a two hour timeframe for the print having the five sections to it.   Both of these were completed with 'fast print' settings.

What we would do next/Next Steps for Student: Over the past three weeks the student has undergone a process of learning the technique to apply to a range of prints and design which is centred around the designing, creation of and applying of a the 'linking' to a print.   Once this has been mastered it has multiple applications and as detailed in the slideshow it is possible to make any range of design with the same basics.