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How do!

So on my walk today, I went up and through town’s Artist Quarter (yes we have one). And I saw something which reminded me I’ve been annoyed about something. No I can’t be that annoyed, it’s true, but stick with me.

And a quick caveat. I am not slagging off 3d Printing as a Thing or a Hobby. But again, stick with me.

And that thing which has annoyed me is, at Arts & Crafts things, people selling 3d Prints as Arts & Crafts. Specifically, when you’ve seen two or more stalls selling The Exact Same Design.

As someone who enjoys getting into some arts and crafts and developing their skills, to see some…some…some…nerk just 3d Print someone else’s design, and then expect decent money for it? This sort of thing just pisses me off no end*.

No, as per caveat, not someone who takes the time and effort to create the original STL, and figure out the supports and that. That is a hobby. Thats is art. That is crafts. Not problemo there. You’ve applied your skills and knowledge to create something new, especially as I understand the first prints are going to end up a bit wonky, requiring tweaks and that.

But those who clearly, by evidence of multiple vendors, are just using someone else’s STL. That specifically isn’t something to claim “All Me Own Work, Guv” about.

I do appreciate there is effort in learning your machine and getting it to print and give design reliably, including adding your own supports where, perhaps, something doesn’t quite work as intended on the original file. But I’m also aware there are programmes which will do that for you.

And I’ve no problem with a home 3d Print fan buying and printing an STL. It would be a very silly** world if anyone had much of a beef with that.

But to hawk your wares amongst genuine handmade items, when all you’ve really done is fire up your computer, do a few clicks, and then, like, wait for a bit? Nope. Nope nope nope. I won’t stand for that. And boo to those who attempt pass such things off as comparable to truly handmade items. Even if the also followed a pattern, they’ve still put much more effort and skill into it.

*If you read that last bit in David Lo Pan’s voice, I award you a cookie, but as you’re also probably fairly old, best check with your doctor first because like blood sugar and stuff. I want to reward your nerd knowledge, not kill you due to your nerd knowledge.

**OK, sillier world, as I trust we can at least agree the world is fairly silly as it is.

This is why I love the ads for the Website Etsy.

They run adds that poke fun at stuff mass produced by machines...

And then you are beaten over the head on their site by an avalanche of 3d printed merch.

I adore Etsy. As a Goth into unique things made by small vendors, it divine.

But, yeah. Shame about the same issue cropping up there.

I can see your point,

but as you say the actual printing aspect of it could be considered the 'craft' portion

and while i will agree that a potter making the same basic mug, or wood turner making the same basic seed dibber may well be displaying more skill

I'm not convinced that all the stuff you see at a craft fair does (especially round Xmas time) where a fair chunk of the content comes in from low labour cost countries and put together in what's likely to be a factory environment

I am into 3d printing and I agree with you complaining about the way its appearing in arts n' craft.
Too many times its people downloading models from the internet and printing them out - hence the multiple people with the same produce.

If they have done the digital sculpting themselves to make their own piece it is fine, but supporting and printing alone is not enough. Modified ones maybe depending on how large the mod is and how well done...

For the record I am a digital kitbasher - I am not up to sculpting full models but I can take pieces from different sources, make sure they fit style wise and put them together and merge them, modifing as necessary to fit the image I want. I use both paid and free models. I do not sell on my work and only post those that are from free sources and have a free use qualifier on the original work. I also make sure to list my sources so the original scultors get the credit they deserve

Oh and slicers like citubox/lychee (SLA) and prusa/cura (FDM) do automatically do supports, but there is a skill in getting optimal results - auto support has to be the start not the end.
Working out the best orientation, getting minimal scaring and so on is tricky sometimes and each machine/material/location can effect what you need.

As someone who supports several patreons for digital sculpters ETSY is a major problem for them.
There are many pirates who sell on other peoples work as their own there, either as files or as prints, without authorisation. All the patreons and kickstarters have private use only contracts, often with (higher cost) merchant level options but many pirates are private use abusers or just scavange for files from idiots who post them whole elsewhere.
This piracy can happen on other sites such as Cults3d or myminifactory, but they will remove listings when informed and potentially black list repeat offenders. ETSY does not.
This is a shame because there are lots of good honest sellers who are doing their best despite etsy being awkward to work with behind the scenes(from a family friend had their own business they run though etsy and other sites) and it makes them all look bad.

I sell 3d printed items in such a manner. I buy other people's designs, which I then adapt. I print them, hand paint them, and am very open about the fact that it is printed, and people really enjoy them. It's absolutely no different to the crafter who buys beads to make necklaces, or the many people who paint canvases with heavily derivative work. My etsy shop now has 75 5 star reviews all glowing with how pleased they are with what I have made.

One of my favourite quotes is-to make an apple pie from scratch, first you must create the universe. People using an stl as a starting point to create something more than just a print shouldn't be an issue.

In your post, there are two things I’d say are…my mind is saying ‘exemptions’. It’s not the right term. But it’ll do for now.

You adapt.

You hand paint.

Those are skills. Those are something extra. That go beyond just buying/pirating someone’s design, and pass it off as All Me Own Work Guv.

Let’s think Warhammer.

If you buy off the peg, and try to sell to me at a mark up? Nope.

But, I will happily pay more for a converted model. And I will happily pay more for a painted model - provided of course your conversion and painting is up my street.

My grump is when there are multiple stalls selling the exact same STL. Where the effort is absolutely minimal.

3d printing was accepted into the hand crafted scene in the early days because the printers themselves were home made.

Now, yea, mass produced machines churning out mass produced STLs.

A reminder now we’re a few posts in, for the TL/DR crowd*

We’re not slagging off 3d Printing as a hobby. Or selling prints of an STL you yourself designed. That’s all groovy and legit crafting.

It’s solely when someone buys an STL, prints a bunch off, then turns up at an Arts and Crafts event, selling a few pence worth of resin or filament and very, very little personal effort, for many pounds sterling.

*it’s cool, we all do it!

The people I know who run proper 3D printing firms its very much a lot of work. Keeping printers happy and going smooth; error checking; adjusting presupports (sometimes even creating them as not all creators have them or achieve the same standards). Not to mention producing renders and media (a good few will make their own style of renders).

If its a proper store going places then there's a lot more to it than just printing a bit of plastic.


That said I do get what you mean and the market for 3D printing is small enough that you will likely see similar things, esp popular lines, pop up from different makers. They can still vary though - some might use a lower layer height; adjust angles and presupports and use a good resin to achieve a much better finish over one who uses a thicker layer height; slaps the models on and breaks them off the supports without a care to even adjust tip thickness to account for their resin and calibration.




That and its not unique to 3D printing. Plenty of people selling cushions or patterned goods might well be buying pre-made designs and patterns and recreating them. Granted they might have more hands-on work with that and they might also vary design parts again. But it still happens very commonly. You just might not notice it as you're not into the cushion world enough to spot the familiar ones etc....

You are forgetting as well that there are different licences around the sale of products made by stl purchases. I follow the rules and only sell products that I made using royalty free licences. The sculptor intends and accepts that the purchaser uses the file to create something for sale, and set their prices accordingly.

Me printing and painting is no different or lesser than other crafters who have bought a canvas that someone else made and done a 5 minute imitation Banksy on it, or the person who bought a container load of rough edge chopping boards from China and passes them off as homemade, or those that just buy loads of beads and thread and sell necklaces.

If anything, since starting off making lapel pins, I've learned how to make necklaces by knotting leather thongs, earrings, hair clips, ornaments, cufflinks, decanter chains with hanging charms, kilt pins, studding etc, most of which have been commission pieces. So whilst you might not see that on the stand, only ignorance would decide that I don't deserve to be in a craft fair.