How a charm is printed, layer by layer
A Worry Moon takes about forty minutes and seventy-five layers. What happens in that time, and after.
A printed charm is built from the bottom up. The printer melts a thread of filament, about as thick as a guitar string, and lays it down in a thin line, tracing the outline of the charm one slice at a time. When a slice is done, the nozzle lifts by a tenth of a millimetre and starts the next.
For the Worry Moon that is about seventy-five slices, and roughly forty minutes. Most evenings a tray of eight or ten moons goes on before dinner and comes off before bed.
The lines
Every printed object carries faint lines where one layer meets the next. On a cheap print they are coarse and shiny. Printed thin and slow, in a matte filament, they turn into something closer to the grain on a piece of wood. Noctuary leaves them on the back and sides of most charms, on purpose.
After the printer
Nothing goes straight from the printer into a box. Small supports are clipped away with flush cutters. Edges are sanded round with fine paper, first 400 grit, then 800, over a folded cloth so the dust stays put. Painted pieces get two thin coats, a night to dry, and a clear matte seal.
That last part, done by hand at the table, is most of the work. It is also the part that makes a printed charm feel like it was made for someone.