I have a hobby 3d design business where I make things, and I have a lot of planters. When I make a new one the routine is, buy plant, plant it, take pictures, make notes about how well it works or looks.
Sometimes I end up with 3 or 4 iterations of it. I have too many, no WAY to many plants and I can’t keep up with the care for them. I’m hoping there are members of this community that would be willing to test stuff for me, take photos and give me feedback. Preferably if you live in the PNW or west coast so shipping doesn’t cost a fortune.
For example, right now I’m working on a little shelf that I’m hoping to put smaller, dangly succulents on and I’ve made two, sent one to a friend and need to test the second one. Message me if you are at all interested.
I’m assuming when you say 3D design, you using either CAD or modeling software? If yes, you could consider selling STLs as well as the finished product. Giving away, or heavily discounting, STLs for an alpha/beta run, would eliminate your shipping and material cost for testing. You would still be able to sell physical parts, as well as produce parts that are nicer than your average hobbyist will produce (for example, print molds and cast the planter in a more traditional material).
As far as where to post, I would try [email protected]
This all assumes you’re working in software that can generate STLs.
I give away some of my designs, but not all of them. Also the 3d printing community, which I do belong to, is fine and all, but they have a different approach to things like this than what I’m trying to do.
If you give a 3d printed shelf or planter to someone not in the 3d printing community, they have a more critical/functional eye I’ve found. They aren’t burdened by some of the limitations and give different feedback. There is overlap for sure, but the best feedback I got was when I partnered with a local plant shop. The creativity and eye for what worked best was awesome. Unfortunately that shop didn’t survive the covid years so I’m trying to recapture that feedback loop. I hope that helps explain my thought process.
I hope I didn’t sound like I was implying that you should give your designs away for free :)
I understand what you’re saying - better to give the early design to a person who gardens as a primary interest than someone who 3D prints as a primary interest since the gardener will likely have insight into what works or doesn’t work for the act of gardening. There are some of us in both camps, but the overlap probably isn’t that big.
I’m interested too! Not PNW but I could cover shipping if its not outrageous. I’d love to see them if you are comfortable posting images here!