Greek Designer 3D Prints This Smoke-Breathing Dragon Head Incense Burner

Art, design, creativity and innovation go hand in hand when it comes to 3D printing. The technology has opened avenues for artists to bring their ideas to life in ways previously not possible. When it comes to finding awesome works of art within the 3D printing space, no company has done a better job in bringing these works to the public than MyMiniFactory.

MyMiniFactory hires artists and designers with special 3D design talent to bring their community unique 3D printable content, most of which is entirely free to download. One of these artists is a Greek man named Vasileios Katsanis. Katsanis, who has studied graphic design and worked as a tattoo artist, recently joined the MyMiniFactory Academy where he now spends much of his time coming up with creative and unique ideas for 3D printable products. His latest design is one which is both fascinating to look at and quite functional at the same time.

That design is for a 3D printable dragon incense stick holder.

“I was trying to think of something that I haven’t seen anywhere,” Katsanis tells 3DPrint.com. “Additional[ly], I always had a love for dragons, so I thought, ‘I want to create something that is utilitarian but still decorative, and beautiful’. What does a dragon do? It Breathes fire (smoke).”

So Katsanis decided he would create a 3D printed dragon head that actually breathes fire (incense smoke). Using Zbrush, he designed a dragon head which was broken down into two individual parts. The bottom part includes the lower jaw and the neck of the dragon, while the top part, which acts as a lip, is the upper skull.

“To use it, you remove the top and inside, at the back, there is a little hole where you insert the incense stick,” Katsanis tells us. “After it’s set, you burn the stick and put the top part back in place. The nostrils are the only way out for the smoke. The result is a beautiful dragon head, which breathes fragrant smoke.”

He designed the head in such a way that the nostrils are located at the highest point. This helps aid the smoke in finding its way out. In all, it took him 10 hours to print the bottom of the head, and an additional 8 hours for the top. Once he finished printing the two parts, he used acrylic paint to give it a fascinating looking design, before finishing it with a layer of matte varnish.

As you can see in the photos and the video below, Katsanis’ creation is quite the masterpiece. He has made the design free for members of MyMiniFactory to download and 3D print themselves at home.

What do you think about this cool 3D printed incense burner? Have you printed it out yourself? Discuss in the 3D Printed Dragon Head forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video below.