The perfect trunk

Tree trunk pencil holder “Fagus Sylvatica”: https://than.gs/m/1335382

On my recent visit to the national park Hainich I found this beautiful beech tree trunk with tinder mushrooms. Of course I had to scan it. What I love most about this tree is that when it fell it ripped out a few chunks of the base while the remaining bark is covered in greenish moss with tinder mushrooms. I wanted to somehow transport this shape and color contrast into the design, so I decided to go the hard route and make this printable in multi-color. The shape lends itself to a pencil holder since the height where it ripped open is pretty suitable if scaled down to about 1:10 of the original size.

After fixing all the details of the scan I tried multiple ways of cutting it up to produce less waste and print faster. I ended up splitting it into 6 parts horizontally because this way I could turn around the segment with all the mushrooms to print supportless. Since I also wanted to include a little compartment in the bottom of the trunk this was the way to go. I colored it carefully in blender which took almost a whole day. Since you still have to put it all together afterwards, I designed these tiny rods that serve as position holders to make the assembly as easy as possible. I also made a single-color version that requires less assembly.

Since the bark was already slightly greenish, I opted to print it that way. You can also go for two brown tones if that fits your vibe more. The pencil compartment holds about 5-8 pencils, and the design has an extra tray for small accessories like an eraser or sharpener. I kept the default size rather small since I only want a few pens on my desk, but if you need more you can definitely scale it up slightly.

Have fun printing

Gazzaladra