Your own photo on the Christmas Tree!

Custom Christmas Ornament

1.- History
Lithophanes were once the high tech home decor of the day. They were used as candle
shields, fireplace screens, even bottoms for beer steins and tea cups. Deceptively bland until
backlit, the technique was kept a closely-guarded trade secret for many years but has
recently seen a revival thanks to 3D printing.
The word “lithophane” translates from its Greek origin as “to appear in stone”. In the Western
world, lithophanes were first created by porcelain craftsmen about the 1820s but there is
some dispute over who first created the process. Some historians place France at the head.
Other site Prussia as the leader. There is also a theory that lithophanes were invented in
China almost 2,000 years prior to their appearance in Europe. This is based on historical
records of “paper thin ceramics” with hidden designs embedded within. Perhaps Western
artists were inspired by this Chinese achievement and sought to capitalize on its charming
character. This is common for ceramics arts but at the moment we can’t be sure.
Regardless of its origin, lithophanes were a huge hit in Europe and then America. Despite
their creator’s careful protection of the creation process, dozens of manufacturers in almost
every country sprang up and began producing lithophane porcelain. By the mid-1800s,
hundreds of thousands of lithophanes were made each year—just in the top 3 porcelain
firms alone! This is astounding especially considering that about 60% of the molds started
cracking and became useless during the firing process.
Like any valuable technology, lithophanes quickly spread in popularity and also its
permutations. The straightforward and simple early designs of window plaques and candle
shields quickly spread to include large fire screens, beer steins, matchbook covers, and
even doll house ornaments. Likewise, the motifs conveyed in lithophanes varied from the
religious, to the erotic; the artistically gifted to plain, tourist knick-knacks.
More recently, the lithophane’s popularity has seen a resurgence due to 3D printing. A
simple search on Thingiverse will reveal many free files, ready to print. All that is required is
a 3D printer, a light source, and maybe some patience. If you choose to create your own,
customized lithophane, you will need a bit more skill and maybe some specialized software
to accomplish the task.
2.- Additional hardware needed
- Mini LED lamp: I bought from Aliexpress, but you can buy them also on Amazon
- White PLA Filament: The white color is the one we will use for making the lamp

3.- Tutorial
First of all, you’ll need to select the photograph, and remove the background. You can use
remove.bg webpage, it will remove the background using AI (so it’s easy for everyone).

Now, you have to decide which will be the background of the ornament, here you have some
examples, but you can always try to search more on the Internet! ^_^
(Click on the image for downloading from Google Drive)

1st background 2nd background

After deciding the background, you have to combine both of the photographs. I’ve used pixlr,
it’s an image editor, but you can use photoshop, gimp… Whatever you want
Finally, use Lithophane Sphere Maker webpage for making the ball, here you have the
parameters I used for making mine.

It should look like this

4.- Printing Settings
This are the settings I print with:
Layer height: 0,16mm
Perimeters: 4
Infill: 100%
Speed: 50-70mm
Supports: No
Raft: Yes

5.- Thank you and Happy Holidays!

I will see all your Christmas Ball if you publish them “Post a Make” section.
If you have any doubts, I will be helping you on the comments.

Please leave a like for helping me ^_^