Photo Bauble

About the Photo Bauble

Your photo as a lithophane bauble: it looks like a plain white carving until a light shines through, and then the picture appears. Round, heart or star, with a cap, a hanging loop and a line of text such as a name and year. A keepsake for a first Christmas, a new home, or someone missed.

What you can change

• Type your own text on a plaque across the bottom.
• Add your own photo.
• Shape: round bauble, heart and star.
• Font: 26 to choose from, from script to stencil.
• Detail: draft, normal and fine.
• Pick the photo, frame and cap and text colours.
• Adjust width, letter height, photo zoom and move the photo across, and more.

Size

About 80 × 5 × 94 mm (width × depth × height), one piece at the starting settings.

What you download

An STL for any slicer, and a 3MF with each colour as its own part, ready for an AMS or a filament change.

Printing it

About 18 g of PLA and about 1 hour 10 minutes to print, one piece at the starting settings (100% infill, 2 walls, 0.2 mm layers, on a Bambu Lab A1). Your slicer gives the exact figures for your printer and settings.

Prints standing up for the finest photo, with a brim to keep it steady. Print the photo in white at 100% infill (or with enough walls to fill it). Hang it in front of the tree lights to see the picture.

Read: 12 personalised Christmas decorations you can 3D print this year

Questions

What is a lithophane?

A picture made of thickness: thin where the photo is light and thick where it’s dark, so light shining through it shows the photo in shades of grey.

What photos work best?

A clear, well-lit photo with the face or subject large in the frame. Busy backgrounds and very dark photos come out muddier, so crop it close before you upload it.

How should I print it?

Standing up with a brim, in white filament at 100% infill (or enough walls to make it solid). Then hang it in front of the tree lights.

What size is it?

About 80 × 5 × 94 mm (width × depth × height), one piece at the starting settings. Every size is a setting, so make it as big or small as you need.

Do I need a multi-colour printer?

No. Print it in one colour, or in colours with a filament change: the Colours line under the 3D view says at which height to change. With an AMS or another multi-colour printer, the 3MF prints it in one go.

Which printers and slicers does it work with?

Any FDM printer. The STL opens in every slicer; the 3MF keeps the colours as separate parts in Bambu Studio, Orca Slicer, PrusaSlicer and Cura. Pick your printer in the designer to check it fits the plate.

Can I sell what I make?

On Pro and Ultimate you can sell the prints you make, for example on Etsy or at craft fairs. On Free and Maker, print it for yourself or give it as a gift. The STL and 3MF files themselves are never for sharing or selling.