3D Printing a Clay Cookie Cutter-Stamper

Create a clay cookie cutter by exporting a vector image from Illustrator into Fusion 360, adding width to lines and extruding them to form the cutter, stamp and base

E. Processes

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This is a great way to make crests and designs for ceramics and pottery, enabling you to take on production contracts to put company logos on to ware. Using standard illustration software to create the designs enables more detail and more faithful reproduction. This may be a much better choice than letterpress plates in your application because these cookie cutters can both stamp and cut the clay at the same time. In addition, clay rolled very thin does not release well from letterpress plates - but this method is perfect. Foremost, you can make these yourself using any inexpensive 3D printer.

Vector illustration program: Adobe Illustrator is the standard but it is pricey. There are alternatives that can create SVG files. Inkscape is excellent, it's multi-platform, free and open source and its native format is SVG. Excellent apps are now available on iPad (Autodesk Graphic and Vectornator are examples).

3D Parametric CAD program: Fusion 360 is state-of-the-art and pricey but it is available free to hobbyists and students. FreeCAD is open source, free and multi-platform, but it is more difficult to learn. There are many other commercial packages, and all of them have similar user interfaces to Fusion 360. And tablets are now capable CAD devices, the Shapr app is a good example.

Links

URLs	https://inkscape.org Inkscape - 2D illustration cross-platform software Enables creating and editing 2D graphics and saving them in SVG format. Free and open-source, multi-platform, a mature and very capable alternative to Adobe Illustrator, the industry standard.
URLs	https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/illustrator.html Adobe Illustrator - The industry standard in 2D vector graphics Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor and design program developed and marketed by Adobe Inc. The development of Adobe Illustrator began in 1985 on the Apple Macintosh and moved to usability on Windows by 1993. No artist or crafts person should be without 2D illustration skills and this is the industry standard worldwide.
URLs	https://www.autodesk.ca/en/products/fusion-360 Fusion 360 Parametric 3D CAD software This is incredibly powerful software that available to anyone with a moderately powerful PC or Mac. Engineer, design, and create anything in 3D. Although a challenge to learn, the abilities that this provides can revolutionize any ceramic production effort.
URLs	https://www.freecadweb.org FreeCAD parametric CAD software An open-source parametric 3D modeller. FreeCAD is maturing more slowly than commercial products but is still very capable. It is useful for 3D printing things designed in other products (e.g. Nomad for iPad).
URLs	https://www.shapr3d.com Shapr 3D Parametric CAD modelling software The full power of Shapr3D is on Windows PCs and tablets, Macs, and iPads using the input methods like Apple Pencil, SpaceMouse, Wacom pen tablets, or keyboard and mouse. It runs on top of the ParaSolid engine that is the power behind SolidWorks.
Glossary	3D-Printing Standard 3D printing technology (not printing with clay itself) is very useful to potters and ceramic industry in making objects that assist and enable production.
Glossary	3D Slicer 3D printing is very important in ceramics, hobby and industry. A slicer is software that slices up a 3D model and runs the printer to lay down each layer.
Projects	Cookie Cutting clay with 3D printed cutters We are finding more and more applications for this simple process of cookie-cutting shapes in ceramics. You won't believe whats possible and how easy it is to get started.

Letterpress plates from BoxcarPress.com. Great for stamping designs.

A variety of plastic letter-press printing plates.

We find the 0.047 relief depth shown here is best (K152). Shallower ones will stamp a crisper design but K152 is better if pigment will be used to highlight the recesses. For some things it can be valuable to put border around the outside of a design so that when the stamp is pressed hard into the clay, the edges do not smear outward. These do not actually need to be stuck to a piece of wood, just lay them face down on the clay and use a wooden block to press them. Because they are flexible it is easy to peel them out. When the clay is stiff enough no parting agent is needed. The cost: In 2022 the minimum charge is $35 for about 50 square inches. They accept PDF and bit image files and the shopping cart enables previewing. The cart might generate CMYK plates (four of them for process color printing), just remove the CMY ones and keep the K (black). The most common mistake is having too much detail or too small printing. Or forgetting to make them reverse-reading. It is best to make your images using vector graphic software like Illustrator or Inkscape.

Video: Create a cookie cutter/stamper in 3D software, print it and use it

This cookie cutter can both cut and stamp the piece (notice the 3D render in the centre, the logo is 2mm lower than that cutter around the outside). We make them by rolling a slab to 3.2mm (1/8in) thick, applying stretch wrap over it and then pressing the cutter/stamper into it (using a wood block). Then just peel away the plastic and the outer waste clay and a perfect crest is left. This method enables using clay of almost any stiffness. We find that softer clay works best, just peel it up from the board, apply slip to the back, position it on the side of the leather hard ware and press it down (from the centre outwards). On the lower right is a crested mug that has just been glazed. Upper right is a crest that has been glazed and fired. About the cookie cutter: We create them with 0.8mm wall thickness (twice the width of the 0.4mm extruder on the 3D printer). We export the vector image (made in Illustrator) into Fusion 360 and then add elements to stabilize and hold the profile in place. This cutter is 8mm tall and the stamp lines are 5mm tall. The crest is 52mm (2 in) wide. This whole process may sound a little intimidating to you - but we are working on a step-by-step video.

By Tony Hansen
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