From a small-time hobby using a shabby printer, to a very successful Etsy shop having made more than 800 sales of various 3D printed items, Isaak Garcia started his journey of 3D printing as a hobby using a cheap 3D printer he got as a gift from his family. After some time to figure out the kinks, Garcia created a variety of 3D printed artworks and trinkets to sell at a booth at a local event, in which during this event he managed to sell nearly all of his prints.
“This is what basically started the journey, we sold out of all of these (Gonzo the Clown print) and all of the Perrito suave prints,” Garcia said.
The Woodbridge-based creator now runs a successful Etsy shop under the name SpudPrintz.
He was first offered this opportunity by his friend who was performing at the Hatch Workshop in September 2023.
“I got it (the old 3D printer) working on a whim and my friend. Tom was running a local event and he said: ‘do you wanna sell stuff? Like I know you’re an artist and do paintings’ and said yeah, but I decided I wanted to 3D print stuff catered to his event,” he said.
From there Garcia got to work on modeling a clown to fit the theme of this event. He had to create a 3D model on a software program to be able to print it out.
He used the program Blender to create this model from scratch of a clown head and as well as his own ideas he wanted to make, such as a dog in a suit and crucified Shadow the Hedgehog.
His work was not without issues. For instance the Perrito Suave (the dog in the suit)figurine was one of the bigger prints, which meant it took extra-long to make, that same print would take 6 hours.
After the prints, it was time to hand paint.
Garcia decided to only paint about half of them to save himself some time and give the option for the customers to paint it themselves!
From there he set up his booth at the event at the Hatch Workshop, In which there was a performance art event in September 2023 and set up a set of each figurine he created and hand painted.
“We have never made merch before, we haven’t made t-shirts, we had stickers or whatever. But for some of our first ever merch to be toys, like little statues, that’s really cool,” said Thomas Arganda, from the Hatch Workshop event.
He sold nearly all his prints at this event and shortly after would cause him to post his own shop page on Etsy.
Right before he started his Etsy page, Garcia decided he needed an upgrade to his old 3D printer so he invested his money into a brand-new high end 3D printer to greatly get a faster print, better quality, and print various colors at one time. So now a print that would normally take hours now could be printed in 15-20 minutes.
He also made the jump to a better software program BambuLab to better improve accuracy, quality, and have less errors. He’s since started selling his favorite item, a crucified shadow necklace that helped his Etsy shop find success.
Garcia expanded on the idea by adding other characters that are crucified such as Goku, Sonic, Hello Kitty, and Silver to expand his product selection.
The creator noted that he has a most popular item ordered.
“It’s definitely crucified Shadow the Hedgehog,” he said.It’s the item that makes my business, people love Shadow the Hedgehog.”
The creator has a total of 874 sales with 168 reviews averaging five stars, making him a Star Seller, all growth from October 2023 to now.
For convenience, Garcia has all his prints in stock so they’re ready to be shipped at a moment’s notice.
“Everything that’s in my Etsy store is in stock right now, so it would literally just be me, printing the label and receipt, and then putting it in the bubble mailer and just shipping it out,” he said.
