Pokeball Terrariums (2022)
Software: SolidWorks
Techniques: 3D printing, clay?, the tiniest amount of integrated electronics
A trap I fall into all the time:
Seeing something handmade that’s reasonably-priced
Thinking to myself, Huh, I could probably make that …
Introducing a lot of feature creep
Making something that costs at least as much as the original and that took dozens of hours of my time
Enter the world of making tiny terrariums shaped like Pokeballs for my friends.
Pre-Design
I’d made a first pass at Pokeball Terrariums back in 2021, so I had a little framework to start with already. In that project, I’d already figured out how to make a reasonable snap fit for the plastic dome (it’s not really fair to call it a bump-off, but it’s closest to a bump-off), and I’d gotten the dimensions into a place I was confident in. In this version, I wanted to add lights that:
Were integrated into the scene (i.e. not rim lighting)
Had easily accessible batteries and switches that weren’t visible from most viewing angles
Design & Assembly
I fiddled back and forth a lot with a pretty central problem in industrial design—shoving square things into round things—before deciding to use a top-access method for battery replacement and then covering all the requisite hardware with tiny flowerpots in post. That’s not a trick I find myself saying often at my actual job, but it worked out here. In a Rev3 I’d probably commit to soldering in an actual switch, but I found a coin cell battery holder with a built-in switch and a form factor that lent itself well to facing an external edge, so I decided to use that for the time being.
I made the set pieces (a tiny ramen shop and tiny coffee shop) in SolidWorks as well, and set up a few of the stools and flat pieces to be lasercut to save some time. This project certainly ended up relying a lot more on my amateur sculpting and painting skills, which is a fun change of pace from normal, all things considered.
