At some point someone asks: «With that printer, couldn’t you make some trophies?». And from that moment you’re done for, because the answer is yes.
The subject is ultimate frisbee: a player in mid-air catching the disc and the opponents jumping to contest it. A group of intertwined figures, all in motion, basically a printing nightmare.
2024 edition: bronze
June 2024. The figures are too big and too intertwined to come out in one piece, so they’re printed in parts, hanging under the build plate in a forest of supports. Then they’re removed, sanded, glued and reinforced with metal pins at the thinnest points, where one figure touches another.
Then the colour: a bronze pretending to be cast, with darkened shadows and polished highlights. And finally the base, which turns a figurine into a trophy.
2025 edition: gold
A year later, an encore. Same subject, new resin, yellow this time, and real award cups as pedestals. The colour this time is gold.
There are trophies you buy and trophies you make. These weigh little, but they’re worth more. At least, that’s what I like to think.