A Christmas State of Mind Ornament

by Leandro_Rolon

1.9K85

Intro: A Christmas State of Mind Ornament

Every year, The President of the United states delivers a Christmas message. In the spirit of the holiday season, The Christmas State of Mind Ornament pays homage to American History by celebrating Presidential Christmas Quotes shared throughout time.

For The White House 3D-Printed Ornament Challenge we have selected a special quote from former President Ronald Reagen during his 1981 Christmas Speech. "Christmas is a state of mind. It is found throughout the year whenever faith overcomes doubt, hope conquers despair, and love triumphs over hate."

— Ronald Reagan

STEP 1: Select Your Message, Design and Trace

Once your message is selected a typographic design is created then outlined utilizing Adobe Illustrator.

After the design is generated the outlines are exported from Adobe Suite and then imported into your preferred 3d software.

STEP 2: Extrude Your Message

Utilizing 3d software the letters are imported then extruded to create printable solids. For this design we are using Rhino 3D and the Grasshopper parametric plugin.

STEP 3: Wrap Your Object

The letters are extruded then applied to the ornament based on our set parameters.

The final geometry is an ornament, articulated via typographic characters. The message wraps around the ornament creating a complex and interesting sculptural form. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

5 Comments

ull87 8 years ago

Wonderful piece! Could you please do a tutorial of how you wrap the text to the sphere in Rhino and grasshopper? Greatly appreciate.

rockclimber101 9 years ago

Wasn't this already posted by you? The only reason I noticed was because I was admiring it. Really awesome!

Leandro_Rolon 9 years ago

Thanks for the heads up! We are trying to fix the license type on the original posting by replacing it with this one. I'll have to contact instructables on this one. Oh and thanks for the kind words!

Leandro_Rolon 9 years ago

Hi Sean. Thanks for the compliment. I'm not very familiar with inventor but Rhino and/or Grasshopper are great for doing this kind of job. Another option is to use a texture map in your object then manually trace the letters although this could get tricky.

sean_sylvester1 9 years ago

This is really great work, I was trying to do something similar in autodesk inventor, but was unable to. The text doesn't convert into curve so I couldn't wrap it and just did a ton of ectrude cuts.