Faux Barbed Wire Choker and Bracelet - Flexible 3D Print

Last year I decided to try to make a faux barbed wire choker and apparently gave up and didn't save my work. I decided to give it another try this year and I'm quite happy with the simple design. Despite being 3D printed and being modeled after barbed wire, the designs are fairly comfortable to wear. It's not a direct copy of what barbed wire looks like, but more of a representation of it in jewelry form.

Learn how I designed and 3D printed a flexible faux barbed wire choker, bracelet, and stretchy armband.

Check out my shop on Etsy! You can also purchase this choker, bracelet, and armband in my Etsy store.

Instructable 363

• 3D Printer - I have a Prusa
• Glue Stick - so your flexible filament comes off the bed (depending on the printer and bed)
• Flexible Silver Filament - I'm just loving this Liquid Luster color
• Jewelry Findings - I like Stainless Steel for durability and longevity
• Jump Rings - I use 5mm 21 gauge but really anything around this size works well
• Lobster Clasp
• Extender Chain
• Elastic - I used white because it's what I had but grey would be nice too
• Thread
• Sewing Needle (or machine)
• Flush Cutters - for cleaning up prints
• Nylon Brush - I got this set to use with my printer and cleaning up prints
• Lighter (optional) makes cleaning pieces easier

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I created my design using Tinkercad. The choker was designed to fit as long as it could diagonally on my printer bed.

This design is mostly made out of the Torus shape and Paraboloid shape with some cylinders and rectangles thrown in.

To start, there is the barb. I wanted to try something with a spiral or corkscrew-like shape, but in the end, the torus seemed to be the best way to go. I lined a few of them up to make it look like it was a wrapped barb and then added paraboloids to the ends for the points. I angled them away from the surface both for looks and comfort of wear.

The back of the design was cut off to make the back flat.

You can see the first iteration which had the points going straight out. Along with not being very comfortable, it didn't look as nice and barb-like.

Like for the barbs, I originally wanted a spiral to make up the base, but the torus worked out the best. I put a cylinder down the middle to fill the hole and cut off the back to make it flat.

There are two different ends for these. The necklace and bracelet end and the elastic armband end. You could do the same end for all, but I found having elastic on an armband was much easier than a clasp.

For the necklace and bracelet, it is made up of two paraboloids, bottom to bottom, and a cylinder to cut out the hole for the jump ring. This was brought up to the end of the base of the piece.

For the elastic, I had a rectangle cutout to fit the 1/4" elastic, rectangle base with wedge and an odd cutout made by the paraboloid to give it a bit of a curved top so it didn't have sharp, out-of-place edges.

Even with good settings, you're probably going to have stringing and blobs on your print (it can be hard to see in the pictures, but they are very stringy). I like to use a flush cutter to cut off the blogs and larger strings and then I quickly brush with a nylon brush to try to dislodge any more small strings.

I've also used a lighter to melt and shrivel up some of the small strings. It works really well, but it can leave a burn smell behind so I don't usually do this anymore.

Add the clasp and chains to the cleaned up choker and bracelets.

Sew the elastic on the armband. I used a sewing machine before, but it was starting to get caught in there, so I've found hand sewing can be easier if not quite as fast.

Enjoy your pieces!

It's not as uncomfortable then you might think. The points go away from your skin and only poke you if you move your head to look straight down.