Seed of Yggdrasil: nifty 3d-printed sculpture based on Celtic-style knot in Norse mythology

Joaquin Baldwin, whose wonderful creative work we've featured on Boing Boing before, shares these photos of a lovely 3d-printed sculpture he's just created. You can purchase your very own, right here. Cat not included.

Joaquin explains:

I made a sculpture of 3d printed awesomeness and wanted to share it with you, I hope you like it. It is titled The Seed of Yggdrasil. The design is based on the classic Celtic-style knot symbol for the tree of life from Norse mythology, Yggdrasil.

Inside the leaves you can see a small sphere of blue. If you looked reaaally carefully, you would notice that the continents in the blue ball are in the shape of Pangea and not our current distribution. The texture is amazing, the little ridges from the 3D printing process give it a very natural and tactile feel, and the colors are really vibrant. And the cat didn't care at all.

• [Steve Reid]

  This a pretty intricate model you’ve printed.   What printer did you use to get such fine detail?  Have you heard of the 3D Printing Pad 
  http://www.3dprintingpad.com/.  It has all the 3D printers on the market right now personal use and it compares them.  I wonder how many of them can print something like this!

  • [Joaquin Baldwin]

    Thanks, that’s a cool site. I just uploaded it on Shapeways.com, I don’t have a 3D printer of my own. But I definitely want one :)

• [Steve Pan]

  That is one fucked up looking penis

• [Rezeya Montecore]

  Genuinely impressive, but I think photographing it next to a cat was a bad PR move. Everything looks less impressive next to a cat. :)

  • [niktemadur]

    Well I call totally gratuitous and senseless cattery here, like chicks in bikinis touting spark plugs and oil filters.

• [EvilTerran]

  Might just be my red/green colorblindness talking, but the knotty bit looks like delicious pretzel to me…

  Incidentally, for those interested in Celtic knotwork (and other Celtic art), I highly recommend George Bain’s book – it covers the different styles very well, and details the methods he determined for recreating the Celtic art style. They’re not the simplest instructions, and he does tend towards dense pages of tiny-text-labelled diagrams, but it’s very exhaustive. It’s enjoyable to flick through even if you don’t plan on drawing any, IMO:

  http://www.amazon.com/Celtic-Art-Methods-Construction-Instruction/dp/0486229238

  • [princessalex]

     I’ve had his book for a couple of decades.  It’s fantastic!

  • [Charlie B]

     That is a great book, but I can’t recommend Bain’s dotty method.

• [GabyYYZ]

  I KNEW IT!  We are all just a dainty treat for a cosmic cat. 

• [Svejk]

  Dudes, Celtic is not Norse.

  New Age Celts and Norse revivalists are going to come after you, and trust me there’s a good chance they will play their music at you and you don’t want that.

  • [Tarliman]

    Speaking as a Neopagan of more or less Celtic tradition, I think this is a damn cool sculpture and a good use of symbolism from both Celtic and Norse traditions. However, if the sculptor wants to listen to Faun or Omnia or Damh the Bard, I’m willing to share.

  • [Joaquin Baldwin]

    That’s why I described it as “Celtic-style”, to protect myself from the backlash of purists. If they get violent I’ll play some Enya for them.

    • [Svejk]

       Enya certainly makes me cry and run away – I think you’re covered!

• [bklynchris]

  my daughter just said in a hushed tone with eyes wide…”the brown seed pod thingy looks like lady parts”.  My response, “yes, celtic lady parts”.  so proud of her. giggles.

  • [Dree]

     Vulval.  And yet: scrotal.

    • [bklynchris]

      I don’t think (and hope, for that matter), she has any scrotum references as of yet.

• [Anna Ellinor Lly Fägerstam]

  I think it would look better if the seed actually resembled an ash tree (that’s the English name – right?) seed.

  • [Adela Doiron]

     Yes it is supposed to be an ash tree and ash seeds are flat single wing style. Also it should be done in Urnes style.