Starling Murmurations 1

pinshape

This sculpture is inspired by the breathtaking sight of starling murmurations, which can be seen during midwinter. These swarms can reach up to a million strong and appear as one giant organism rather than individual birds. I aimed to capture some of that magic in a 3D print, so I interpreted their movement using computational modeling tool Grasshopper for Rhino. Printing Notes: This model is challenging to create but easy to print, requiring no infill at all and only minimal supports. A tricky aspect is ensuring bed adhesion; I used an Ultimaker Original with masking tape instead of a heated bed, which works well as long as the bed is perfectly leveled and the nozzle is well primed before printing. It's best to use a skirt. Only the thinnest part, number 6, needed supports, so you'll need to experiment with your printer's capabilities. I use a slicer that allows me to delete supports as I wish, so I left out as many supports as possible because they would ruin the surface quality of the print. You can print each part separately or group them together; take your time to get the settings just right using small test pieces. It will be worth it when you have 12 silky smooth parts ready to be carefully glued together. I recommend using super glue that sets transparent, but I used normal superglue and it set matte white, so I had to paint over the join lines, which wasn't desirable. I'll remember this for next time. This print is in black PLA and meant to be a sculptural ornament; it's signed by the artist! The next one will be printed with translucent PLA and have digitally controlled LEDs inside. I'm looking forward to that as I hope to approximate the movement of the real bird in flight. Recommended Printer Settings: Printer build volume - 200mm x 200mm x 200mm Filament - PLA Nozzle Dia. - 0.4mm Nozzle Temp. - I set my print head at 218 degrees Celsius for my particular PLA filament; you'll need to find the perfect temp for your filament brand. Extrusion Multiplier - 102% Line Width - 0.42mm Layer Height - 0.20mm Initial Layer Height - 0.15mm Print Speed - Between 45 - 60mm/s Wall Settings - 2 wall Top/Bottom Settings - Zero Infill - Zero Supports - Zero Retract - On Fan - On Spiral Mode /Vase Mode: Off Skirt - 5-10 lines to make sure nozzle is well primed Skirt Offset: 1mm Brim - No