Sona Grigoryan of SGStories is a Spanish designer who specializes in 3D printing. Many of her designs are contemporary in style with open framework.  She is adept at finishing these wonderful creations with additional UV resin and resin work as well as metallic paints. 

Of special note are her beautiful dragonfly and stained glass inspired pod earrings shown below. 
Also remarkable are her long teardrop earrings which are adorned with little crystals. 

Sona explained :
For these unusual 3d printed teardrop earrings I mixed various techniques and materials. I used hollow PLA droplet as a base and added some paint, crystals and UV resin to achieve this magical effect.
She certainly has the creative talent and skills to make use of the new technology in the making of jewelry. 










3D Resin Printing vs FDM Printing

3D printing is a method of building up a 3D model from a digital design. It's an additive process which means the structure is built up layer by layer.  

The filament type of 3D (FDM or fused deposition modeling) printers are the most commonly used. The heated nozzles melt plastic filaments. The extruded plastic is then moved around the design building it up from the bottom.  In order to speed up the process, the interior of the structure is often honeycombed i.e. the structure is not solid. 

FDM 3D printing is very popular as these are relatively inexpensive. But the details are not smooth due to layer lines. There is an obvious texture as you can see from my first foray into FDM printing with these maple leaves shown below. I tried out PLA and ABS (on the right) filaments to see if there was any difference in the finish. Alas not. There are many ways to do the finishing including an acetone bath!  


If the model is large and has to be supported during the build, then any "scaffolding" also has to be removed as part of the finishing process.

3D resin printing uses photopolymer resin which starts off as a liquid but solidifies on exposure to UV light. This type of 3D printing is faster than the FDM type as the entire first layer is cured rather than waiting for the extruded filament to fill up the area. Each resin layer is so fine that there is far less unwanted texture. On the downside, 3D resin printing is more expensive.

Watch Thomas Sanladerer explain more about 3D Resin Printing and yes, there are some safety issues when working with photopolymer resin. 


Before You Go :

Disclosure 

This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
 ______________________________ 
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM