Pillar Candle Holder

We have a short, metal candle holder designed for 2-3/4" pillar candles, but the base was leaving stains on any surface on which we'd place it. I designed this holder to hold that holder - that's a lot of holding, right there! - but it will work just as well by itself without the metal insert. The inset is 99mm (3.9") in diameter and 10mm (0.39") deep. The whole thing is 110mm (4.3") tall with a base 152mm (6") in diameter. As an added bonus (for my girlfriend, anyway) if you look closely, you will see her profile imprinted on the design itself :)

Print Settings

Supports: No 

Resolution: 0.2mm 

Infill: 10%

How I Designed This

I started with a profile photo of my intended target - I mean model :) - against a solid white background with her hair pulled back. This photo was then cropped in gimp with a little post-processing to cut out all traces of the background. Next, I imported the profile photo into Sketchup on a separate layer in the vertical orientation and used the [Line] and [Curves] tools to trace the profile onto another layer. I extended the top portion up a bit vertically to allow for the candle later. Working with the negative space - the area outside of her face - I drew horizontal lines from the top and bottom of the profile a distance of the radius desired for the pillar and connected those with a vertical line on the blue axis. From that vertical line, slightly below the outline, I created a circle on the horizontal plane the diameter of the intended pillar with the vertical line being the center of the circle. Selecting the circle, I used the [Follow-Me] tool on the profile outline, resulting in the a cylindrical copy of the that outline. After that, it was a simple matter of dropping the center portion to create the recess for the candle.

It's much easier to do than it is to describe, but I would be glad to help anyone interested in trying this themselves of their own loved ones.