Strata Planter

A 3D print is built from layers 0.2 mm thick, and most of the time you try to hide them. This pot started from the opposite question: what if the layers are the design, and colour is simply a result of how a printer works?

The design. The pot is as tall as it is wide, with a slight belly in the middle. Four bands run around it, the darkest at the foot and the lightest at the rim. On the middle size they are 30, 32, 38 and 30 mm high. The saucer is 15 mm high and one colour. The three sizes, 80, 130 and 180 mm, are the same pot at a different scale, so they read as a family when they stand together. Strata is Latin for layers. Not an original name, but an accurate one.

What makes it hard. In multi-colour printing every colour change costs time and a little purged filament. A colour that returns in every layer means hundreds of changes. That is why the bands are horizontal: the printer swaps filament only three times per pot, each time at the height where a new band begins. The join falls exactly between two layers, so it is as sharp as a layer is thin. The outer wall gets a grainy texture, called fuzzy skin, which breaks up the layer lines and gives the pot something of rough stone. The inside stays smooth. The largest pot is 180 mm wide and fits the 256 mm build plate.

What you can take from it. The colours in the design are earth tones. With the filaments in stock those become Ivory White, Mandarin Orange, Terracotta and Dark Chocolate. Other combinations work too, with at most four colours in one object. The images on this page are renders; the print files for all three sizes are ready.

If you would like a pot, a vase or a tray in your own colours and size, ask for a quote.