The Making of the My Chemical Romance Keposhka Beads

I just finished designing these round beads for bracelet making. I modeled them in Blender using the font images from https://blambot.com/pages/the-language-of-the-black-parade, a blog written by the creator/artist of the language.

^Picture during the design process. 

The first design was the round beads with Keposhka on both sides. After 3D printing this design I sanded each bead and hand painted the letters in with enamel paint, but I wasn't entirely happy with how they looked just yet. 

I wanted them to have a glossy finish like other beads, and the hand painting gave it a messy look (and took forever). I experimented at this stage with different coatings (resin and some basic top coats) in an attempt to get the beads glossy but any coating I tried either didn't give a clean finish or was too intense of a process for me to want to repeat for multiple batches (resin (yuck)), so I spent a while looking into different options. While I was stuck at this point with the after-print process I went back to my 3D models and I switched up my design a bit to add the corresponding Hybrid English letters to the other side of the Keposhka beads, which I think makes them way easier to use for bracelet making.

While researching different methods for smoothing 3D prints, I discovered that for ABS prints, acetone vapor chambers can be used for smoothing and glossing prints so I switched to ABS filament and started building a chamber for my prints. 

I pulled a fan off a broken pc and connected the wires to a 9V battery. I wired the fan into a plastic tub and put a plate in there to hold the acetone. I put my printed beads on an embroidery hoop with window screen so the acetone vapor could reach all sides of the prints. This method gave a smoother finish but I was still trying to figure out a clean method for adding the color into the letters. I tested a method where I used an oil pastel to rub the letter color in (like the old D&D dice) then wiping away the excess, which still left the beads messy, and also a method where I printed tiny letters and then put the printed letters into the bead blanks, which took wayy too much time... so I ended up splurging and buying another 3D printer that could print multiple color prints (I know it's bad,, I wanted them to be perfect!!). The new printer didn't come broken like my other though so I think it was worth it, and with the multicolored prints I'm finally happy with how the beads are turning out.

^Acetone vapor smoothing 

I also just finished designing square bead versions but haven't printed any yet. I'm working on designing more MCR themed charms and beads to print soon. 

I've been printing in batches of 105 beads and I'm down to do trades for bracelets, photocards, art, or any other trinkets for anyone who wants to trade! The STL files are also available on Thingiverse for free.