3D printers are a lot like AI, in a way. People think 3D printing is no more than pressing a button and waiting for the print to finish. They would value what you made a lot more if you whittled it from wood and painted it with pigments from rare wildflowers. (And back in the day when I worked with wood, I would make hand-stained and decorated wooden boxes for gifts).
And so, people really don’t appreciate the 3D printed gifts I try to give them each year. Kids, honestly. I have a 3D printer — a Bambu P1S — and I am gosh darn well gonna use it. So shut up and sit down.
This year — well, last year, too, but also this year — I hatched an evil plot. Put gift cards inside the 3D printed stuff. Then they would have to appreciate them.
Because gift cards are the perfect gift, and 3D printed gift card containers get a little shine just for being so close to something wanted.
Starting in the back is a puzzle cylinder. It’ll contain my older grandson’s two gift cards, birthday and Christmas, as he was born on Christmas Eve. I’m able to open it in just a few seconds. I’ve been practicing. With luck, my grandson will be still working on it when I return home. He’s gonna develop a rare appreciation for 3D printed gifts when he finally gets it open. With a hammer, I imagine.
On the front right, an exploding puzzle box. Looks solid; pull on the ribbon and it comes apart. I’ve put two Sacagawea “gold” dollars from around 2000 in them. I found them in my penny jar when I was sorting them out a few weeks back. I polished them up, got nice matte black coin holders to put them in, and now they’re waiting for the twins to open them with glee. If I were their age, and received this, I’d have those coins spent as soon as I could get to the store. But now in 2025 they are almost worthless, so I’m hoping they keep them around.
The next two are for my daughter (snowflake on a light blue background, mechanism showing) and my son-in-law (holly berries). Since my daughter and her husband are elderly and decrepit and somehow older than I am, these open with just a twist of the decoration. They should have plenty of time to help my older grandson open his puzzle cylinder. Perhaps my son-in-law can hunt up that hammer for him.
Remember: you can get people to appreciate what you make with your 3D printer if you’re just clever enough.
Love this idea!!!
🙂 I cackled evilly as I first tried to solve that puzzle cylinder 😉
I spent so many years making my own Christmas cards. Probably did it at least twenty times from the 80s through the 2000s. Took me ages. pPa huge amount of work into it. Hardly ever got any feedback about any of them from anyone. Eventually I thought “Sod you then!” and started buying them like everyone else.
When the AI thing started, I had a brief resurgence. AI was unusual still and possibly a little bit cool. I made some cards I was pretty happy with. Crickets. Tumbleweed. Went back to buying them.
And now, of course, if I sent cards with AI images, they’d probably come back all torn up and spat upon. Which, at least, would tell me someone had noticed.
I dunno. I think we’re in an AI echo bubble because we’re familiar with the gamedev arguments and feel a lot of sympathy. I gotta tell you that almost nobody at work, where AI use is mandatory, feels the way we do about it. Now every presentation has AI pictures, many with weird anatomical defects that nobody even notices until I point it out. “Weird how their arms keep lengthening, isn’t it?” I didn’t like clip art before. I like AI clip art even less. It isn’t even clever.
But, my firm belief is that people wait until I am out of sight and then throw away anything I gave them, box and all, unless it’s money. Still, I do what I must.