3D printed jewellery is completely revolutionising the craft industry because it is cheaper and far easier to make than traditional jewellery. In today’s blogpost we will look at how you can create everyday and bespoke pieces ready for wear through 3D printing. We are focusing on pieces made on FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) 3D printers. By comparison, metal 3D printing, such as gold, silver, and platinum, is commonly used for jewellery. We’ll show you some of our favourite pieces we found on MyMiniFactory that you can create yourself, or if you don’t have your own 3D printer we can print them out for you. You can find out more about our custom 3D Printing service here.
3D printing a jewellery piece is not drastically different that printing anything else, however, what makes or breaks the finished product is the design. 3D printed jewellery is an art form in of itself and it does require serious skill in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) software and the creativity to envision and design something beautiful. We choose to think of 3D printed jewellery as the meeting point between technology, craft, and art. Many designers have built successful jewellery stores on Etsy and other online shopping platforms through selling their 3D printed pieces. If you are interested in learning more about 3D designers, we've done interviews in the past with Eve Balashova, a jewellery designer and maker, and Joana Aloise, a 3D designer and founder of Strukt.
If you are after something stylish but you want to do the printing bit yourself, the design process can be skipped by searching for the perfect piece on websites like Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory, where people publish their designs for free or for a small fee. Once you have your .STL file, all you need is to print it out, add the necessary bits like ear wires for earrings or chains for necklaces and voilà! A new addition to your jewellery collection is complete!
If you are looking for some ideas and wondering where to start, here are some of our top picks from MyMiniFactory, you’ll find direct links to the items if you click on the headings as well to make things easier for you.
This is definitely one of our favourites. It’s a jewellery set, so you can 3D print matching earrings to the necklace. You can pick whichever colour filament you like – we think the pictured black is very elegant and classy, but you can definitely add some fun to this set by printing it in a bright colour like our wonderful ‘Flame Red’. The whole thing prints in about 30 to 60 minutes, so it’s a quick and exciting set to create, especially if it is one of the first jewellery pieces you do.
Image: MyMiniFactory
These earrings are perfect as a simple everyday accessory. With their pre-set dimensions of 40x35x4mm, they are medium in size and bound to catch people's eyes. Their print time is 20-25 minutes, so you can show them off in no time. Similarly to the last piece, you can make these in any colour of your choosing, or even have each in a different colour for an extra fun take!
Image: MyMiniFactory
It's no lie that nearly everyone loves, likes, or at least has heard of Pokémon. Probably the most recongisable part of the franchise is the Pokeball, so we're sure every fan would appreciate these earrings. They are a bit more fiddly and difficult to assemble because you need to print them in parts for every colour, but nothing major!
Image: MyMiniFactory
All in all, whether or not these pieces are a good alternative to traditional jewellery is really up to what a person's expectations are. We think that they can make a fun and easy addition to anyone's collection and can be used as alternatives to normal jewellery due to how customisable and quick they are to make. However, we can't really expect 3D printed jewellery to look and be as durable as traditional jewellery. 3D printing has also revolutionised the way traditional jewellery is made, as now 3D printed prototypes are used to create moulds for casting jewellery.