3D Manufacturing Explorations
These playful pendants reinterpret the traditional Turkish tulip motif in a contemporary, minimalist form. Reduced to their essential curves, they create a soft, modern silhouette that feels both symbolic and approachable. Drawing from the tulip’s deep significance in Ottoman art, symbolising elegance, beauty, and affection, these pendants reimagine a historic motif for the present day, enriched with both cultural memory and the technological history of an obsolete fabrication method.
Produced in 2013 using a hybrid additive–ceramic casting process, the pendants were fabricated through Shapeways’ early ceramic 3D-printing service and then finished with traditional glazing techniques. This combination allowed the pieces to merge the precision of digital fabrication with the tactile warmth and subtle irregularities of hand-finished ceramics. Crafted in smooth glazed ceramic, they are presented in a gentle palette of sky blue, pale green, lemon yellow, charcoal, and white, each with a soft matte-gloss surface that catches the light delicately. Suspended on simple cords, they offer an easy, wearable charm.
Significantly, the Shapeways ceramic 3D-printing service used to make these pendants has since been discontinued (since 2017). As a result, these works belong to a finite, now-unrepeatable production run from an early moment in consumer-accessible ceramic 3D printing. Their status as discontinued artefacts gives them collector value and clear design provenance within the history of digital craft.