A small shop for small charms.
Noctuary is two desktop printers, a sanding block and a box of paints in a flat in Manila. It makes little charms to order, a few at a time.
Every charm starts as a drawing, then a small file, then a few hundred layers of melted filament, each thinner than a sheet of paper. The printer does the slow part. The rest is done by hand: the supports clipped away, the edges sanded round, a window or a moon painted in with a fine brush.
The shapes come from ordinary life in Manila. A cup of tsokolate on a rainy afternoon, the sampaguita sold at the church steps, a house key handed over on moving day, a pebble from a river trip. Noctuary makes them small and soft and light enough to carry every day.
A noctuary is a record of the night. The name fits: most of the printing happens after dark, with the lamp on and the printer humming under the desk.
Five materials
- Matte PLA
- A plant-based plastic made from corn starch. Soft to the touch, no shine, and it takes paint well. Most charms are printed in it.
- Silk PLA
- The same plastic with a pearly sheen, close to the look of a petal or a shell. Used for the flowers.
- PETG
- Tougher and a little flexible. It survives the heat of a parked car, so it is used for boxes and anything with a lid.
- Resin
- Printed from liquid and cured with light, at layers too fine to see. Smooth enough for beads and the painted moons.
- Glow filament
- PLA mixed with a powder that stores light. A few minutes under a lamp gives close to an hour of soft green glow.
Printed to order.
Nothing is kept in stock. Each charm is printed after it is ordered and ships in three to five working days. Painted pieces take a day longer to dry.
See the charms