Preemptive Prolific Production Printing: Petite Precious Pendants

Good Vibrations earrings and keychains

So, without really meaning to I got a head start on my mass produced object. I let myself be distracted and went where my motivations took me and I'm actually so happy with how these turned out.

These are based on the infamous ███████ █████████ massager (name redacted for lawsuit protection because these will probably sell by the millions) and I traced the silhouette in Adobe Illustrator which I then imported into Rhino. After a few Rhino tests I ended up make the entire thing in Grasshopper, including all the separate parts.

The Grasshopper file as well as the object's design went through many iterations until I was happy with what I got. There is a small hole in the base which a steel eye hook screws into and then the whole piece is hooked onto a sterling silver base fish hook earing.

They are so easy to print and I designed them to print so that with an easy colour change in Prusa I am able to give the neck a different shape from the base which provides me with a lot of options for combinations. Assembly is a easy friction-fit, most of the time they slide together easily but every so I often I need to be quite firm. I use cyanoacrylate to make sure the pieces stay together though, even when it's a tight fit.

I designed the packaging in Illustrator. It's still in it's "test" phase I would say but I wanted something that would give an idea of what exactly it would look like but mostly importantly how it would come together and function. I wanted something that if necessary I could print myself and assemble myself. This design is easy to cut out, fold and then staple to the small Ziplocs as you can see above. It doesn't require a lot of time or skill really, I don't even find it that tedious. I imagine I could probably get them printed professionally for an affordable price where they're already cutout and then it would be really easy.

I've even started working on future alternative products within the same line and much of the work done here can be very easily adapted for those.

The biggest thing here is it's easy to pop the white sucker part in BUT it's not straightforward to get the orientation/rotation right. I want to use a sort of lock-in method so there's only one way they fit together. Likely with a extrusion/inset shape would be my guess.

Buy yours today!

If you want a pair for yourself head over to @buyvian and place an order. A funny full circle moment is that I currently have an order for a bespoke set of earrings based on the person's favourite vibrator.

P.S. I learned the hard way that it's actually really important to do regular maintenance on your printer—including cold pulls ...