This is the Crying Dragon Planter!

This planter is designed with a large dragon eye on both sides, and one of my favorite details is the small slit in the corner of the eye that acts as an extra drain hole. When water drains through it, it makes the eye look like it’s crying, which gives the whole piece a really unique, alive feeling.

There are also standard drain holes on the bottom, and the matching catch tray works as a small reservoir to hold extra drained water. The eye slit is not actually an indicator of overwatering, but if the eye is completely dry, that could be a sign your soil is getting too dry.

This one is a super fun and easy print that looks great in multi-color, but it would also look amazing as a single-color print with a little Rub ’n Buff added to the eye for extra pop.

Print Settings

Layer Height: 0.20 mm Walls: 3 Infill: 5% gyroid Nozzle: 0.4 mm Supports: No supports needed

For quicker print times:

Nozzle: 0.6 mm Walls: 2

Filament Usage and Print Time Bambu Lab A1

Planter (3-color print as shown)

Print Time: 20 hours Filament Usage: 370g

Planter (single-color version)

Print Time: 7 hours Filament Usage: 190g

Catch Tray

Print Time: 4 hours Filament Usage: 80g

Snapmaker U1

Planter

Print Time: 10 hours Filament Usage: 250g

Catch Tray

Print Time: 3 hours 20 minutes Filament Usage: 75g

For the version shown, I used:

Bambu Lab Galaxy Nebula for the head Geeetech Silk Gold for the eye Bambu Lab Basic Black for the pupil

If I were selling these and didn’t have a multi-nozzle printer yet, I’d print the whole planter in a darker filament color and add gold Rub ’n Buff to the eye. That would still give it a really striking look without needing a multi-color setup.

Happy Printing!

-Christian, @CraftyKid3D