Setting the Table with 3D Print Thanksgiving Designs and Inspiration

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and if you don’t have time to run out for anything other than a turkey, just hit “print” on these cute 3D print Thanksgiving designs to liven up your holiday table. If you do have a little more time, some of these designs are sure to inspire designing a few beautiful place settings and decorations to give your gathering a more festive fall harvest feel.

Setting the Table with 3D Print Thanksgiving Designs and Inspiration

Thanksgiving is a time for families and friends to gather together, so why not show off a few 3D print Thanksgiving designs you’ve made yourself or downloaded? Creating unique pieces for holiday decorations is a perfect application for 3D printing. Despite desktop 3D printing being for plastics, there are quite a few items for baking all the wonderful holiday pies and cookies so long as you don’t put them in the oven.

Since Thanksgiving is primarily about the food, I figured the food and drink related items were the best place to start this 3D print Thanksgiving list. As usual, 3DShook makes the list with these fun 3D print Thanksgiving themed drink stirrers to identify your drink from others, or you could use the wine stem charms available on Thingiverse. The cheese labels are a cute idea for your appetizer tray, and I especially love the range of fonts they did them in. The photo isn’t the best, but you can see how the name of each cheese is printed in a font that matches their origin as seen with the German-looking font for the Ziegenkäse cheese.

When it comes to measuring out the spices and herbs for your Thanksgiving meal, the measuring cups from OogiMe are a unique twist on your regular, seen it a million times before, cup design, and when it comes to measuring liquids this seems a whole lot easier than bending down to eye level to read the meniscus. Taking your butter game to the next level with a 3D printed butter pig is especially cute and it even comes with different 3D printable inserts to achieve different butter designs for your dinner rolls and mashed potatoes.

As far as setting your table with 3D print Thanksgiving items, I would definitely recommend getting your design right in PLA or ABS with your FFF desktop printer and then sending it out to a service bureau to be made in a nicer ceramic or metal filament material. The lace napkin stand holder below is a frilly design that would look so good in some of the metal filaments available, especially in a rose gold which goes well with a fall palette. The maple leaf candy dish is a great design, and it would look great made in a some larger sizes as serving bowls for Thanksgiving sides or as a bread basket.

Looking through all the the file sites, and even just a regular ol’ Google search and there was not a place setting to be found other than the Martha Stewart set above that is no longer available. There are often parts of a place setting, napkin rings, coasters, place card holders, but they all aren’t designed as a set (or even made by the same people). What you get is a mish-mash of 3D print tableware. Which leads me to asking the question of, “Where are all the good designers?” Not that there aren’t good design files and 3D prints out there, but they are so hard to find amidst all the junk. I, for one, am ready to see more file sites like 3DShook who create a real catalog of items that you would actually want and use, and that bring a little design aesthetic to a room.

Can you believe that gourd is 3D printed? And how fun is that cuckoo clock? Printing the parts out beforehand and assembling it together would make for a great family project for the holidays. Speaking of family, can’t leave out some 3D prints for those that qualify for the kids table as this 3D print Thanksgiving decor list comes to a close.

As with many of our “Best of” lists, there were many things that I had hoped to find, but did not. I have a feeling that since most people using 3D printers are male, they do not consider designing 3D print Thanksgiving decor pieces for the home in the same way that a woman might. I realize this could sound like a line straight out of a 1950s magazine about women’s roles and interior decorating, but the fact of the matter is that women are the primary shoppers of the home and are largely the ones preparing house for holiday guests. So if, by and large, the ones doing all the 3D print designing are male, they most likely aren’t making designs for 3D print fall decor or 3D print Thanksgiving items. If 3D printing is to truly become mainstream, it needs to reach the female segment of the market in terms of having downloadable files geared towards female shoppers.

If you’ve printed out or found any inspiring 3D print Thanksgiving pieces, be sure and tag @3DStartPoint with your designs and models anywhere on social media, or leave a comment below!

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