Showcase

Models Showcase

Models designed by Krypto, the SO3D robot, and by our members. Open any of them in the generator to see exactly how it was built, remix it, or print it as-is. Browse the model library by category

Preview of Spiral-flute potpourri jar with heart-hole lid
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Multi-part assembly
Spiral-flute potpourri jar with heart-hole lid
MAIN PURPOSE: Let the scent of dried flowers drift out through heart holes
A round jar with twisted ridges all round and a screw lid pierced with little hearts, so the scent of potpourri, dried lavender or a scented cotton ball drifts out.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Sphinx rep-tile nesting trays
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Simple
Sphinx rep-tile nesting trays
MAIN PURPOSE: Fill one sphinx-shaped tray exactly with four smaller trays of the same shape
Very few shapes are rep-tiles, shapes that four copies of themselves can tile into a bigger copy of the same shape. The sphinx, six triangles in a lopsided trapezoid, is one of the strangest, found in the 1960s. Print one big tray and four half-size trays: the four small sphinxes fit perfectly inside the big one (turn two of them over), and each of those could in turn be filled with four even smaller ones, forever. A desk tray that doubles as a puzzle.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Kanizsa illusion snack trays
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Simple (set)
Kanizsa illusion snack trays
MAIN PURPOSE: Set four notched trays together and a bright square appears that is not there
Put four of these round trays in a square with their notches pointing inwards and a bright white square appears between them, with crisp edges that do not exist. It is the Kanizsa illusion: your brain fills in the outline of a shape it expects to see. Fill them with snacks and watch guests swear the square is there. Cats seem to see it too: in a 2021 citizen-science study, pet cats sat in the invisible square about as often as in a real one.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Venus flower-basket wedding vase
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Medium
Venus flower-basket wedding vase
MAIN PURPOSE: Hold wedding flowers in a lattice vase modelled on a deep-sea glass sponge
The Venus flower basket is a deep-sea sponge with a skeleton of glass lattice so strong that engineers copied it for the Gherkin in London. A pair of tiny shrimp swim in when young, grow too big to leave, and live inside together for life, so in Japan the dried sponge is a traditional wedding gift. This tall, round-cornered vase has the same diagonal lattice cut right through its walls; drop a test tube inside, add two stems for the couple, and the light pours through the walls.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Einstein-tile coaster
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Simple
Einstein-tile coaster
MAIN PURPOSE: Protect the table with coasters in the one shape that tiles without repeating
In 2023 an amateur mathematician found the shape people had searched for since the 1960s: the "hat", a single tile that covers a plane completely but never in a repeating pattern. Mathematicians call it an einstein, from the German for one stone. Each coaster is one hat. Lay a set out on the table and they fit together endlessly without the pattern ever repeating. It is a conversation piece, a puzzle and a coaster at once.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Rubin vase pen tray
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Simple
Rubin vase pen tray
MAIN PURPOSE: Keep pens in a vase that turns into two faces
A pen tray built on Rubin's vase, the most famous figure-ground illusion. Look at the tray and you see a vase. Look at the desk beside it and you see two faces looking at each other, their foreheads, noses, lips and chins traced by the vase's curves. Pens lie in the vase, and the illusion is always on the desk.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Penrose-stairs organiser
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Advanced
Penrose-stairs organiser
MAIN PURPOSE: Sort desk bits in boxes that step round like the endless staircase
Four long boxes pinwheel round a central well, each one a step taller than the last, like the Penrose stairs in Escher's Ascending and Descending. Clips go in the lowest, pens in the tallest, and the centre takes the phone. It is a useful organiser that looks as though it climbs forever.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Ampersand key tray
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Simple
Ampersand key tray
MAIN PURPOSE: Drop keys and post into a giant ampersand by the door
A hall tray in the shape of a huge ampersand, the "and" that links you to everything you carry out of the door. Keys go in the big lower loop, coins and rings in the top loop, and the curling tail holds a lip balm or USB stick. Typography you use every day.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Eight-point star trinket tray
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Simple
Eight-point star trinket tray
MAIN PURPOSE: Hold trinkets in a khatam, the eight-point star of Islamic geometry
A trinket tray in the shape of the khatam, the eight-point star made from two overlapping squares that recurs in Islamic tiles, from Andalusia to Samarkand. Rings, prayer beads or keys rest inside a shape that has decorated walls for a thousand years.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Tumbling-block hex caddy
By Krypto, the SO3D robot
Complexity
Simple
Tumbling-block hex caddy
MAIN PURPOSE: Split a hexagon into three rhombus bays that read as a cube
A desk caddy built on an optical illusion. Three dividers from the centre split a hexagon into three rhombus bays, and from above they read as a cube seen corner-on, like an old tumbling-block quilt. It is a useful three-way organiser that looks three-dimensional when it is flat.
AR view Open in app

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