Blooming Pumpkin Candy Bowl - Twist to Open

A pumpkin candy bowl that blooms open. Twist the stem and the eight petals fold out like a flower, showing the candy cup inside with a little skull on top. Twist it back and the pumpkin closes again. A fun centrepiece for a Halloween party table or a trick-or-treat bowl by the door.

How It Works

Turning the skull and stem turns the screw inside the spine column. The screw moves a slider with toothed bars up and down, and the bars turn a small gear on each petal, so all eight petals open and close together.

Parts

• Base x1 - upright, no supports

• Petal x8 - lying on its flat side edge

• Gear x8 - flat

• Slider (ring with toothed bars) x1 - upright

• Cup x1 - upright

• Column (spine and screw) x1 - upright

• Skull x1 - upside down on its flat top

• Stem x1 - small tree supports for the curl

The one in the photos is printed in white and black. Colour ideas: orange base, petals and gears, black slider, purple cup, bone-white column and skull, green stem.

Print Settings

• 0.2 mm layers, 0.4 mm nozzle, 2 walls

• Everything is laid out and oriented in the 3MF (2 plates)

• Supports only where the 3MF has them (the stem curl)

Assembly

1. Thread the slider onto the column from the bottom.

2. Snap the column's foot into the base.

3. Drop the cup in.

4. Glue each gear into its petal, then drop each petal's axle stubs into the slots on the base rim.

5. Press the skull onto the hex at the top of the column, and the stem into the skull.

Tip

Before printing the full set, print the base, one petal and one gear first to check the gap tolerances on your printer. The gears are small (12 teeth), so they are the part most sensitive to printer tuning.

You will need a little glue for the 8 gears. Everything else snaps together.