Sculpting Light: My First Vase Mode Print from Catdad Workshop
How a Wavy Lamp Became My Quiet Breakthrough
There’s something meditative about watching filament lay down, line by line, forming an object from nothing. But this print was different.
I found the design on Printables.com, a treasure trove for 3D makers, and the moment I saw it, I knew I had to try it. The sculptural curves, the gentle wave pattern, and the minimal silhouette spoke to me. It was designed by Catdad Workshop, who generously shared it with the community under a remarkably open license, allowing remixing, commercial use, and use in Free Cultural Works, as long as proper attribution is given. So here it is: full credit to Catdad Workshop for the brilliant somewhat original design.
What made this lamp extra special for me was that it marked my first real experiment with vase mode. I’d read about it before, the idea of printing a continuous spiral with no seams, but had never committed to a full-scale project with it. This lamp changed that.
The first couple of prints? Total failures. One collapsed halfway through, the other started to warp weirdly near the top. Turns out, dialing in vase mode takes some patience. I tweaked the flow rate, slowed down the print speed, and gave the slicer a second look. And then finally, I got it work…. nope actually still got it wrong. Three attempts to print the lap shade resulted in more waste to send to printerior for recycling. Last thing that finally got it working was to set all of the Extrusion width values to be the same. Seems like Prusa slicer has a lot of differently named variations on extrusion width.
I watched as the lamp shade emerged perfectly: a wavy, seamless shell that diffused light like silk.
I paired the printed shade with a base made from 3D printed wood filament, keeping the tone organic and warm. The final touch was a natural rope cord purchased from your typical big box store, which gave the whole piece a grounded, coastal-modern vibe. My neighbors, who are remodeling one of their rooms Immedietly offered me money for it and now it sits in their freshly remodeled room, casting a soft glow and reminding me that trying something new is almost always worth it, even if the first few tries go sideways.
If you're a maker, check out Catdad Workshop’s other designs. The care and accessibility they put into their work is exactly the kind of open-source creativity the world needs more of.
And if you're not a maker but just love well-designed objects? I’ve listed this lamp for sale in my Artisans Co-op shop. I hope it brings a little light and calm into someone else’s life the way it did for mine.
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