Geometric Dreamcatcher (With print in place feathers. Amazing with glow in the dark filament!)

(A small favor: If you do print this, lmk. I want to know if the hinges I made work well. They're a little “front heavy” so the feathers would hopefully balance out and point straight down)

Dreamcatchers are Native American charms that originated in the Ojibwe culture, usually used to help protect young children and infants from bad dreams. Legend has that the first dreamcatcher was a magical web woven by a thankful spider, where bad dreams are caught in the web and disappear in the sunlight, while good dreams may slip through the hole in the middle and reach the sleeper.

Originally made of willow hoops and natural fiber or sinew, dreamcatchers were picked up in the Pan-Indian Movement and became one of the more identifiable icons of Native American and First Nation crafts.

While my wife has some Native American ancestry, they came from an entirely different part of North America. But she still loves the idea of dreamcatchers, and our young kids wanted their own after finding out about them. While I'm terrible at weaving things, I have a 3d printer, plus I just got a Obxidian .4mm nozzle and some glow in the dark filament, so here we are.

I tried to give the outer hoop a more organic feel, with a surface that isn't perfectly flat or symmetric. The weaving gets progressively thinner towards the center, but maintains printability/stability/adhesion with a .4mm nozzle. And the feathers are printed on print in place joints: I probably could have made them prettier if I used static pieces, but it felt really weird to have fixed, inflexible feathers. BONUS: Because the feathers are on joints, I was able to fold them up in the file and then make the dreamcatcher basically as large as the print capacity of a MK4 printer. 

If you ever have the opportunity to support a Native American, First Nations, or similar artist, please do. In the meantime, please enjoy this thing I made for my kids (though the overall geometric look may or may not have been inspired by a flash contest here at Printables😛)

I printed mine with Overture Glow in the Dark PLA. Results were awesome, and I'd recommend sticking with PLA where possible (some of the overhangs might be a challenge with PETG and the like)

PRINT NOTES:

• If your cooling is good and filament temps are dialed in, this can totally print at .20mm SPEED on a MK4. The example shown in the photo was printed at this speed (.gcode included)
• If your cooling is poor, your PLA tends to be goopy, or such, print at .10mm layer height. This will give the filament enough layering to print at the angles in the file. And will give you a smoother top surface to the items. But on my mk4 this takes almost 8 hours, instead of under 4 with the .20mm SPEED profile.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: If you print glow in the dark filament, please invest in a hardened steel nozzle. Glow in the dark is abrasive and some filaments could destroy even a quality brass nozzle within one print.