A Year in Review (Patreon)

While I have been 3D printing for a long time now, it was only one short year ago that I uploaded my first self-made design. (Well technically a year and two days, but who is counting)With the first official year in the books, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on all that has happened and share those statistics and my thoughts with you all. This is a long one.My first design was titled "Earth Angel" and a Christmas preset for my wife, inspired by one of her favorite songs. It all started with a doodle on a sticky note one day at work and seeing the joy it brought her after it was brought to life is what started this all.You can actually find that design on Makerworld here.It was a simple design, but I remember at the time how complicated it was to create. How many hours it took me fumbling about with various 3D modeling software to figure out. How long it took for me to figure out how to properly do manual filament changes at the right time.

Since then, I have created almost 150 more designs!

That is roughly 12 designs released a month, consistently, for an entire year 🤯

Those designs have gained over 300,000 views and almost 40,000 downloads and won several contests.I have almost 3,500 followers across various social media platforms, including 592 current free members and 60 paid members right here on Patreon!In this short, but hectic year, I have been contacted by major brands in this space to collaborate including Creality 3D, Anycubic, and most recenlty STLFlix.

While this has been the most amazing creative outlet for myself, I can't deny how stressful this has been at times.Pushing myself to always innovate and come up with something new. Not wanting to recycle the same old designs over and over. Test my skills and strive for growth with each design. It can be exhausting, especially on top of my full-time job as a 911 Dispatcher.

So why do I continue to do it?

As cheesy as it sounds, the answer is you.Seeing the joy my creations have brought the people in my life is what started this journey.Then having such positive engagement on my creations from the community pushed me to continue to release things publicly.Seeing the success my creations have had in various contests and winning prizes was unthinkable and made me realize I was decent at this.Then the continuous requests from people wanting to sell my designs and spread them further out there drove me to create this Patreon.So while I may be the one creating, it is truly you all who have given me the motivation to keep going. The way you share this community with others to help it grow daily. The way you show love on my work and provide great feedback. The way you provide financial support, giving me hope that this could be something full-time one day.All the things that I could go on and on and on about, but to save your eyes I won't.

This year has been absolutely amazing and more than I ever thought it would be as I sat at my desk doodling a goofy looking anime earth with wings. So thank you.

Here's to the next year, let's see how much farther we can go, together.