Small fish

A 3D printed fish is not something one encounters frequently. 3D printers have been around for a long time, going back to the 1980s, but they were not really suitable for widespread use. Whereas normal printers have been in use for a while now, 3D printers have only recently been gaining widespread traction.

This small fish, which can easily be held between two fingers, was given to the owner by a student. The student was the first one to be supervised by the owner , and thus already had a special place. When studying for some PhD-degrees, you can be asked to supervise a student in a Bachelor or Master’s programme. Together, they did research on fish roe. For the owner, doing a PhD in the Netherlands and supervising a student were both firsts.

“I had not supervised a junior student before, but there’s a first time for everything. It was really nice to receive such a thoughtful present when we were finished with the project. It really makes the gift extra special.”

The student she supervised had a 3D printer at home, showing the increasing adoption of the 3D printing technology. How does a 3D printer make such an object? Well, a 3D printer relies on blueprints.https://builtin.com/3d-printing These blueprints tell the printer how to establish the layers that make up an object. If you would, for instance, give it a blueprint for a chair, it would construct it from the ground up by printing multiple, small layers.

So was this fish likely created. By choosing a suitable blueprint and suitable material, the fish could be made by adding layer after layer. The result? Multiple, cute fish in different colors. The owner of this specific fish was presented with multiple colors to choose from. The choice fell on the yellow fish. Why?

"I chose the yellow one, because I think it is a youthful color."

When it was time to photograph the items, the yellow fish had been lost - her cat had used it as a toy and lost it. She got these black and white fishes as a replacement. These will make their way all the way from the Netherlands to China in a few years. Sometimes a small deed can be truly special, and gives people you might not see that often a nice memory for years to come.