My daughter loves to collect and build mini food and objects. It is a really fun activity for the two of us to do together. We have collected a ton of mini sets from the store, but have decided that its even more fun to create them entirely from scratch. We decided that a mini zen garden would be a good place to start.
We made this zen garden using our 3D printer. I created the files in Blender, and uploaded them to Thingiverse so you can make your own. These were printed on a Bambu A1 Mini, using Inland PLA filament.
Mini Zen Garden
The first file I created was the box for the zen garden. This was the easiest part to make. I normally would have designed it in Tinkercad. Since I’m working to learn Blender, I used this as a good learning opportunity.
The second file I created was the rake for the zen garden. This was more complicated, but I was able to figure it out fairly easily. Once I designed this I was feeling much more confident in my Blender skills.
The final file I had to make was the bridge. This is by far the most complicated object I have designed. After watching several different blender tutorials, and making many mistakes, I was successful. I am very happy with how this turned out.
After all three objects have been printed, you will need to add some sand. Once you have filled the box with sand you can place the bridge, and use the rake to smooth out the sand.
I hope you enjoy making this mini zen garden as much as my daughter and I did. Let me know in the comments what other mini objects you would like to see us create.
If you like this project, you might also like my 3D Printed Hearts, or my 3D Printed Bookmark.
