3D Printed Skulls and Wildlife Replicas: a Few of Our Projects
The natural world is a topic close to our hearts, a life without an appreciation of nature, is a poor life indeed. With current issues surrounding overpopulation, ecosystem loss, and climate change we all need to buck-up our understanding of our living planet.
We came to 3D printing with science models in mind; namely anatomy and protein models. As luck would have it, PLA makes an excellent material for bone replicas. The layering of FDM and SLA printing doesn't look out of place on bone models. The weight and feel of PLA and UV resin can mimic bone quite well. Most bone replicas are made from traditionally cast resin or plaster, these materials can have disadvantages in being heavy or fragile. While a plaster replica will shatter when dropped, a PLA replica will bounce. Traditional resin bone replicas are cast, but 3D printing offers a means to make very detailed complex bone structures which casting would struggle to reproduce.
Naturally, the most dramatic and complex bones in an animal are the cranium and jaw - the skull. The head has an animal's key sensory inputs, visual, olfactory, and auditory. It has to deal with the animal's main chemical inputs, breathing, eating, drinking. Thanks to evolution the skull is a highly honed and complex tool reflecting an animal’s niche. One finch has a beak for breaking nuts, another a beak suited to picking at grain. One primate has large eyes for hunting at night, another a large cranium to accommodate a brain suited to language and tool use.
In this way, skulls make for fascinating and engaging education pieces. We have completed various projects producing skull sets for students and the public. Pieces to inspire interest in nature and living things.
Exhibiting at Sewerby Hall alongside The Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year:
Large Animal Skulls:
A few of the larger replica exhibited at Sewerby Hall in 2023.
After completing an Anglo-Saxon replica grave-goods project for Sewerby Hall, our client expressed interest in our skulls for a piece to be shown alongside their exhibition of Wildlife Photographer of the Year. We produced various replicas relating to some of the animals found in the Hall's small zoo and wild animals found on the estate. We were more than happy to print and supply various examples including a Llama and Lemur cranium, capuchin and horse skulls. We've exhibited there both in spring 2022 and spring 2023.
A skull set to engage students with local wildlife for the Science Oxford Centre:
We were approached by the Oxford Trust to supply a set of skulls with examples of animals found on their 15 acre woodland park. This set of 18 skull types was to be used to engage students in learning about biology, zoology and ecology. Among the species included were pipistrel bat, canada goose, badger, squirrel (red and grey) and roe deer.
A small set of specialist replicas for Brownsea Island of the Dorset Wildlife Trust:
This was a commission set including some difficult to source species and specialist replicas. We produced a 20 times scale model of the small mollusc Papillifera bidens - this was sculpted in clay and scanned in as we lack a multi-million pound micro CT scanner. We also produced models of a cuttlefish, sika deer skull, peacock cranium and minotaur beetle - all species at Brownsea.
Art piece commission for a collection miniature skulls of European mammals:
An artist working on a proposal for a rewilding piece approached us to produce various miniature skulls of well know European mammals. This included many models we have in our collection, otter, badger, roe deer, as well as others like bison, moose and cattle which we outsourced.
Our Projects:
We have a large collection of natural history finds from badger skulls to blackbird beaks, sponge fossils to North Sea shells. We have a growing library of digital replicas free to download and print from our Sketchfab. There's a loose team of individuals who allows us to scan in their finds and we're always interested to add to our library.
There is a growing collection of digital libraries allowing a vast array of models to be printed copyright-free. When all else fails we can reconstruct skulls from similar species and use our sculpting methods.
Our goal is to have a formidable library of free to download and print digital assets and offer a vast array of PLA and UV resin 3D printed products which are plant based, cruelty-free and affordable. We're passionate about educating the public and spreading awareness of the natural world and hope our replicas can help!
