3D Printed Jewellery Business: Progression

 

We have a School Market Day approaching in October 2025.    As part of the process our students have spent time designing and using our technology to create a range of products.   As detailed previous Market Days can be viewed here.

One of our business ideas was to use Tinkercad to create original 3D Designs which they then could 3D Print.

In the instance shown left the students from our junior school had a discovery time, where they were creating a range of beads and forming a bracelet.  We were able to use the lettering shown left and combine it with the objects and the material that was supplied.

The pink lettering shown in both examples are our students using their 3D Printed Glow-in-the-dark filament.   This provided beads with an additional feature in that it could glow in the dark.

The feedback from the students, in this case junior students (new entrance who are five years old) helped our business students think about design options and how they might improve their product.   They wanted to look at including their own versions of the art blocks (the flowers shown left) that fill out some of the design.   After seeing the examples they again used the scribble option from Tinkercad to create their own take and examples.   These were able to be done quickly and independently by the students concerned.

As shown in the bottom left photograph.   The students also recognised that they could pass on their creations to other students in the classroom who could help with the shapes and the details.  Not all of the designs were able to translate well to printing.

We opted to print in two different colours, using a mixture of red and blue PLA to see which would stand out more.   Some of the designs shown left could be easily recognised, others require more of an interpretation.   The default settings for the printing mean that we are using a regular nozzle etc - but realistically increasing the fine details would not translate to a better print.

3D Printed Glow-in-the-Dark Project Ideas

 

As mentioned on a previous post we have been looking at ways to incorporate and include glow-in-the-dark filament with some of our students other designs and creations.   For example this is the bead group that has started experimenting with including some aspects of the designs, the first, second, fourth and fifth letters are glow-in-the-dark.

We have several groups who are looking at some variation of a night light theme. One of the aspects that matches with the glow-in-the-dark filament is to have it glow by absorbing light.

The Minecraft themed or similar swords shown here have been personalised with a name on the blade and are going to be grouped in combination with some of the other objects that the students have located.   The students have been experimenting with the size and dimensions of each item, some taking thirty seconds or so to complete.

Using or creating 'Lego-ish' figures (or figures that feature similarities from a range of plastic figures).   Students wanted to design figures that had the physical characteristics associated with the figures - the block legs/feet, the square body, the hands and the head.

This student design also included an object in the hands of the figure and they had some challenge with the head, which is why they decided to work on creating a hat.    

The concept of lego and mini-figure like figures has been something we have looked at over the years and practical experience was gained this year by the process of creating the figures for the Dolls House.

One of the groups for our 2025 Market Day has been the creation of key rings specific to a range of customers.    One of the point of differences for our students, which has been as simple as altering the PLA that we are printing with (and not the design) to produce something with a point of difference.

This is also allowing all of our students to think again about how they can use the technology and how they might use glow-in-the-dark filament for projects and prints.   Already we have had students look at the previous projects including the Christmas Ornaments from the past.

3D Printed Market Day 2025 - Update: Beads

 

We are currently in the process of preparing for our 2025 School Market Day - the date of which has now be confirmed for October 31st.

One of the classroom groups has been looking into the process of producing jewellery and individualised beads, spelling out the names of the people who purchase the items.

The students designed each of the letters of the alphabet, in addition to this the group have also printed a range of the letters using glow-in-the-dark filament as well as a range of colours and filament types.

The rationale behind this is to print a significant number of the beads now so that as the market day approaches there are already a significant number of prints made (which we don't anticipate changing significantly between now and the market day) and while we will have the students add to the project before then this allows there to be less pressure moving forward.

3D Printed Projects: Market Day 2025

 

We are looking at ways for students to think about how they can adapt designs for our 2025 School Market Day with the two key components that we are looking for - innovation and personalisation.

In an example shown left the NBA logo and badge was printed out (by a student) with a design that was available as an .stl file on a free website.    

This led to the question being posed how it could be personalised or localised and the result was the student developed a version for his local rugby club based on the design.    Each of the prints took approximately two hours to print and the larger print was 140mm square, the Coastal Rugby was 100 square.   We are encouraging the student concerned to consider how they could add detail (such as develop the rugby ball part of the design, thing about the font and how it looks) and improve its presentation.  We have created versions of this print on many occasions such as this oversized keyring from 2019 or these versions which featured on this blog in 2018.     We also know from experience that these prints have an extremely long life as a working print (as opposed to an MDF type keyring) as evidenced by our update from this year when we identified after seven years of daily use the 3D Print was still maintaining its shape and form.

Another of our groups is looking at necklaces and jewellery as a product.  Again we want to pose the question to the students - where is the innovation how can the print be personalised?

In this instance the student wanted to make a series of message beads that is items that could be linked together that spelt out a unique name.   The student took a regular shape from Tinkercad introduced a letter and additional shapes on it (which used the Tinkercad draw feature) and then hollowed each one out so it could be used and strung together.   The student is now experimenting with the different ways to decorate the top of the beads and also look at what the size that best fits the purpose of.   The example shown show shapes that are 20mm by 20mm.   There is also a range of options that are created for this by different use of filament.

We have spoken how flexi-animals or variations of them have proven to be some of the most enduring ideas and prints that have been created by our students.

We have had previously students create significant media and material related to the process who have moved onto higher schooling - however we asked these students to create unique tutorials to document the process using the 'flipped learning' pedagogy and it was this material that has been used by our students in 2025 to create a range of original designs. 

We have a range of students completing designs in this area - one such example shown above has been a student who is looking to create some form of pendants or jewellery with a star as the basis, and is currently working on her linking.

3D Printed Junior 3D Printed Business Ideas - Beads

 

This is another of potential businesses that are being developed in our classroom - the idea came from the student selecting an interest in jewellery as their intention to create something that fits the brief of being innovative, creative and individualised.

The student brought in this example shown left - it featured a number of shapes, a number of objects that the student felt they would be able to put their own spin on the design.

The personalisation was something that the student was really interested in and as a result she wanted to produce a series of cubes or beads that spelt our either her name or could be created to create a one of a kind object.

The student is a eight year old who has shown the ability to have designs created and made independently.   She is someone who has an interest in craft and creations unique and interesting pieces.

The beads that she has designed are shown left and are among some of the smallest prints that we have attempted.   This is very much the prototype stage however the beads are currently taking twenty minutes to print the set - but the student needs to address the balance between producing 2mm beads and having the lettering or the image and symbol on them being allowed to be clearly read.

The student skillset means that she will be developing these further and locating a range of additional shapes that can be linked to form the rest of the chain.   It will be a matter of determining the PLA colour used and experimenting until the task is complete.

We will be publishing an update on this project as it continues as we move towards a market day later in the year.  There are multiple groups operating in our classroom.