Tidewave Twist Spiral Vase
A 200 mm tall vase with eight rippled lobes that twist half a turn and widen toward the rim, printed in one continuous spiral pass.
Tidewave Twist Spiral Vase
A 200 mm tall vase with eight rippled lobes that twist half a turn and widen toward the rim, printed in one continuous spiral pass.
Date: 2026-11-10 Category: Art and Decor Modeling difficulty: Beginner Estimated print: ~2.5 h total · ~50 g PLA (estimate) Suggested price: $18–$35 printed · $4 digital file (estimate) Status: Concept
Description
A tall flared vase, 100 mm across at the rim and about 72 mm across at the base. Its surface is eight rounded lobes, like ripples on water, and they spin half a turn from the foot to the lip. The ripple gets a little deeper as the vase widens, so the top has more shadow play than the bottom.
It prints in spiral vase mode: one continuous 0.6 mm wall, no seams, no infill. That is why it takes about 2.5 hours and 50 g. The wall is thin and slightly translucent in light colours. It holds dried stems or sits as a sculpture. It is not watertight, so for fresh flowers put a glass jar or test tube inside.
You can model the whole thing in a few minutes: one curve, one twisted extrusion, no hand-built details.
Why it sells
Vases are an established print-and-sell category. An eufymake guide lists vases and wall art as home decor at $15–$80 with 65–80% margin, though it gives no unit sales, and a PrintPal guide lists geometric, minimalist and organic planters as selling well. On the model side, a FacFox roundup reports the free Spiral vase at over 188,000 downloads and about 380 makes, and the Double-Twisted vase at over 57,000 downloads. That shows demand for twisted vase-mode shapes, mostly as free files. The gap is a sellable, commercially licensed original with a deliberate flare: many popular spiral vases are straight-sided, and some are restricted, for example a Thangs listing says no commercial use without a licence.
Who buys it
Home decor shoppers who want a dried-flower or pampas vase, and gift buyers. They shop on Etsy and at craft markets. Print farms like it because a 2.5 h, 50 g piece is cheap to make.
Design overview
- Rippled round section: radius 36 mm ± 4 mm, eight lobes, at the base.
- Linear twist of 180° over 200 mm, so each lobe sweeps half a turn.
- Top section is scaled 1.25×, giving radius 45 mm ± 5 mm. Overhang from the flare is under 3°, so no supports.
- Even lobe count keeps the bounding box at exactly 100 × 100 mm.
- Single-wall spiral vase print: no seam, no infill.
- Feature that sets it apart: the flared twist. The cross-section grows while it turns, so the ripples seem to open up toward the rim.
Dimensions
| Measurement | Value (mm) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Overall width (X) | 100 | At the rim, lobe tip to lobe tip |
| Overall depth (Y) | 100 | Same |
| Overall height (Z) | 200 | |
| Wall thickness | 0.6 | Spiral vase line width |
| Base mean radius | 36 | |
| Base ripple amplitude | 4 | Peak to mean |
| Top mean radius | 45 | Base × 1.25 |
| Top ripple amplitude | 5 | Base amplitude × 1.25 |
| Lobe count | 8 | |
| Twist | 180° | Over the full height |
| Floor thickness | 1.0 | 5 bottom layers at 0.2 |
Parts list
| Part | Qty | Material | Size X×Y×Z (mm) | Print orientation | Supports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vase body | 1 | PLA | 100 × 100 × 200 | Base down, upright | none |
Hardware and non-printed parts
None, fully printed. Optional: a glass jar or test tube as a water liner (not included).
Fits and tolerances
No mating parts. If you add a liner, use a jar at most 60 mm wide so it clears the narrowest inner radius at the base (about 32 mm minus the wall).
Modeling guide
Origin: centre of the base on the build plate. +Z up the vase axis.
- Sketch on XY: the closed curve r(t) = 36 + 4 × sin(8t), t from 0° to 360°, centred on the origin. Use at least 360 points.
- Linear-extrude +Z 200 with a twist of 180° and an end scale of 1.25. In OpenSCAD:
linear_extrude(height=200, twist=-180, scale=1.25, slices=200)over a polygon of the curve. - In Fusion 360 or FreeCAD, use a Loft between the base curve and the same curve scaled 1.25 and rotated 180° at z = 200, or use a Sweep with twist.
- Export as a solid STL. Do not shell it; the slicer makes the single wall.
- No fillets are needed.
Print settings
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Material | PLA (silk or matte); PETG also works |
| Nozzle | 0.4 mm |
| Layer height | 0.2 mm |
| Walls / perimeters | 1 (spiral vase mode), line width 0.6 mm |
| Infill | 0% |
| Supports | None |
| Brim / adhesion | None needed; use a brim only if the plate is poor |
| Notes | Bottom layers 5, top layers 0. Turn on spiral vase mode ("Spiral vase" in Bambu and Prusa slicers; the Qidi wiki explains the setting). Enable the Z-hop only if you see stringing. |
Assembly
No assembly; prints ready to use.
Variants and upsells
- Height variants: 120 mm bud vase and 160 mm table vase, same ripple.
- Colour set: three vases at 120, 160 and 200 mm in teal, sand and white.
- Lobe count of 6 or 10, or twist of 90° or 270°.
- A matching tray for the set.
- Next pieces in a collection: Tidewave Planter (add a drainage tray), Tidewave Lamp Shade.
Selling and distribution
Etsy and craft markets for the print; MakerWorld and Printables for the file. The print costs about 50 g of filament and 2.5 h of machine time, which is why a $18 floor is workable. Sell both. Use a commercial licence for the file, since the data from the sources above shows that some vase-mode files carry non-commercial terms.
Keywords: spiral vase, twisted vase, 3D printed vase, pampas vase, dried flower vase, modern vase, ripple vase, minimalist decor, vase mode, home decor gift.
Risks and IP notes
- Not watertight. Mitigation: say so in the listing and recommend a glass liner.
- Many free spiral vases exist. Mitigation: the flared twist and deeper ripple at the top set it apart; sell colour sets.
- Single thin wall can crack if dropped. Mitigation: print at 0.6 mm line width, ship padded.
- Do not copy another designer's twist profile. This one is built from a plain sine curve and a linear twist.
Resource links
- FacFox: best vases to 3D print — download and make counts for popular vase-mode designs
- eufymake: best-selling 3D printed items — vases and wall art priced at $15–$80
- PrintPal: top 3D models to sell in 2026 — decor and planter categories
- Qidi Studio spiral print settings — how spiral vase mode works
- Thangs Spiral Vase listing — an example of a vase file with a commercial-use restriction
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