Clay and a 3D printer may not seem connected, but many really helpful tools for working with clay can be printed. ClayMe contains a large collection of such items, which you can customise, edit, preview and export as STL files to use in your slicer/3D printer software. There are also paper templates and PDFs.
Tools and objects include:
- pots with matching saucers, feet, shaped rims, corner cutouts and drainage details
- bowls, vases and other vessel formers, with a profile editor for shaping curves, shoulders and necks
- slip casting mould-making tools, with clip-together boxes, shaped inserts and optional separate bases
- matching slip cast lids, handles, pouring lips and spouts, for everything from little vases to teapots
- little lantern houses, with textured wall and roof press-and-cut tools, window and door cutters, and removable building supports
- trays, dividers, cutters, maker stamps and stencils
- hand-building formers, slab templates, pillow forms and removable boxes
- 15 spoon styles, measuring-spoon kits and matching calibration plugs
- 28 spoon-rest and chopstick-rest shapes
- 24 bead shapes with presses, sizers and piercing guides
- pottery ribs with nine vessel profiles
- texture rollers with built-in patterns, from dots and diamonds to botanical wraps, plus custom SVG and PNG artwork
- sphere and faceted shape moulds for small clay forms
Start with a preset, then change the measurements, profiles, textures and details to make it yours. Set real dimensions in millimetres, inspect the finished object and its tooling in 3D, check the scale against familiar objects, and turn, zoom or pan to get a closer look. Export STL, PDF, SVG and PNG files where the project uses them.
For slip casting, print the tools, use them to make plaster moulds, then cast your clay shapes in those. Choose two, three or four plaster sections where the design allows, with locating details to help them fit together and release grooves to help free the printed inserts. Filling helpers provide a reservoir for topping up. Slip quantity estimates help you plan, with a rough starting time that you can adjust from your own casting results.
You can also export a hollow trial vessel and matching lid to print before committing to plaster. For spouts and pouring lips, the pour check lets you explore different fills and change the tilt while pouring.
Pick your printer size or enter custom measurements where fit checks are available. Slip casting tools can be split for smaller printers. Each printed piece is checked separately.
The pot and saucer press formers work best for smaller pots. Start small and get to know your clay. Every project has making instructions, with an illustrated guide on the home page to help you find your way around.
ClayMe keeps projects on your device. There is no account, advertising, analytics, tracking or internet permission. Use the local project library to save versions, clone ideas, and export portable backups when you choose. There are different colour themes too.
Clay and printers are wonderfully variable. Always inspect exported files and test important dimensions, fits, calibrated volumes and release methods with your own materials and process.
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