Supplies:
⇢ Bambu H2D with Laser Combo
⇢ Bambu Filament Starter 4 Pack Bundle
⇢ 49 Piece Bambu Laser Project Starter Pack

Project Files:
Triflex 3D Printed “Fabric”

Us small handmade businesses can get stuck focusing on only making products and selling them. But what could you make for your business that isn’t meant to be sold and could make you more money in the long run?

If you are building your brand, I want to teach you how to market like those multi-billion-dollar companies and start driving new customers to your business – not with thousands of dollars on ad-spend, but with a little “out of the box” thinking.

And I’m going to prove how this works by making cat-themed fashion for a runway show. Seriously.

Let’s dive in!

➕ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel HERE!

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Big Business Marketing Mindframe

Marketing is a big subject that is often overlooked by us little guys. We are busy making projects, shipping orders, updating Etsy listings, and about 2,000 other things.

This usually means our “marketing outreach” looks like a 1-minute post on instagram saying, “hey look what I made.” This works, but not as well as we hope it would.

I know I can’t afford to send out free products to tiktokers to promote, let alone pay anyone to promote for me, so we have to be our own influencers.

How many of you have money to sponsor a local sports team? No one? Me neither.

So how do we get people to help us promote our businesses?

Collaborations.

For those of you who don’t know, I make a living selling laser cut jewelry.

But I don’t have time to make 5 tiktoks every day, and the last time I tried sending free product out to an “influencer” it was a complete waste.

So, what are my options here?

Lucky for me, I met a fashion designer during one of my many craft shows, and we got to be fast friends!

She does fashion shows and I wiggled my way into one!

Side note: You might be thinking, how is a story about a jewelry designer and a fashion designer going to help my drinkware business, or b2b signage business, or whatever it is that you make?

Let me tell ya. This is not a story about fashion, but one of thinking outside of the box. How when you combine what you know, with a strategic ally, you can create a network of people ready to go start an ongoing advertising campaign FOR you.

All will soon be revealed, with tasty business nuggets along the way.

First, here’s how this whole thing started.

Finding the Right Partner

This whole thing started with a conversation in a coffee shop. My friend is a fashion designer, and she mentioned there was going to be a cat-themed fashion show in our area. She looked at me. I looked at her. And I said, ‘I can make something.’

We talked about what it could be made out of and she started sketching. I needed it to stand out. Not just because it’s a fashion show, but because it is going to fall back to me.

Essentially, I needed to create a showpiece that acted like a walking billboard for my jewelry business. Since it needed to function as something that can actually be worn, and I just got my Bambu H2D plus laser combo, we decided on 3D printed “fabric” and laser cut accessories.

Here is your first business tip: Collaborate with people who know what you don’t know. I know lasers. I do not know fashion. She does. And after a single coffee, we had a buildable concept.

Your laser skills are valuable to professionals in completely different industries — fashion designers, event planners, house flippers. They don’t have a laser. You do. That is a conversation worth starting. And sometimes, that conversation starts over a latte.

Building Wearable Art with a 3D Printer

For the shirt itself, I found this incredible flexible fabric panel file on MakerWorld. The original design mimics chainmail but looks more like a fabric. But I needed it to be more cat shaped…

So, I called in the best 3D printing expert I know — my son.

I gave him the file, told him what I needed, and he came back with a two-color version: gray base, black cat silhouette layered right in. Perfect.

The shirt was going to be made out of 6 different panels which was going to take me 37 hours to print in 4 sessions.

The H2D handled the printing, and the multi-color capability on this thing? Oh, it’s amazing. Setup was genuinely painless. I’m not just saying this cuz this is my 1st 3D printer. Panel one came out beautiful.

Panel two… was not beautiful. I had been left unsupervised and selected the wrong colors for the print. I had to scrape every single one of them off the plate and start over. Now — I want to be clear that this was operator error, not the machine’s fault.

Here is your second business lesson for the day:

Learn to ask for help. If I had waited and asked for help, the 3D printer wouldn’t have been running the wrong configuration for 2 hours before I realized I had screwed something up.

Business growth is a team sport. You might be thinking that you’re a lone wolf with your business right now, but here you are watching this video. That’s a form of reaching out.

In fact, I’m going to reach out to YOU right now and ask that you let me know who else you watch here on YouTube to help with your business! For example, I love Chalkwatts when it comes to lasers and business and I’ve been listening to the Anatomy of a Dream Channel, a lot lately too!

So, help me train up my youtube algorithm with some of your favorites down in the comments!

Showcase Your Skills

The shirt panels are done, but the bottom needed attitude. Cat-titude. Which obviously means fishbones.

For the fishbone accents, I switched over to the H2D’s 40-watt diode laser attachment. And I want to just take a second here, because this is one of the things that genuinely impresses me about this machine as a business tool — you are not buying a 3D printer AND a laser. You swap the module and you have an entirely different tool on the same machine.

I cut the fishbones out of black acrylic. Fast, precise, and the detail on small pieces like this is where the diode really earns its keep. I have the 40w diode head, and it’s amazing.

But here’s where it didn’t work.

This weird glitter fishnet fabric sheet is going to be the straps. The laser can’t cut through this, but you know what can?

The H2D also has a plotter knife function.

I almost forgot about this. I swapped the module, loaded my fish shape file, and that plotter knife cut through that fishnet fabric like it was made for it. Clean edges. Perfect straps.

Now it’s time to put this thing together. And by now, you are probably really wondering – how will a 3D printed cat shirt in a fashion show help my jewelry business?

Let me explain that while I put this thing together.

Assembling Attention to Your Business

What happens when you throw a pepple into a lake? It makes ripple right?

I will start the third business tip today with a story.

The first time my designer friend asked me to be a part of a fashion show, she just wanted some fun earrings to pair with her fashion pieces. I said sure and handed over some, she did her show and it was all over.

But it wasn’t over – at all. What happened was my designer friend, the runway models, the photographers, the show producers, and a zillion other people I didn’t even consider, all started posting THEIR work in the show and tagging me.

Instagram, facebook, tiktok, post after post. Tag after tag. Then I reposted their posts and bing-bang-boom. It turned into a huge share-fest.

I am reaching circles I would never have before, and these are circles that make sense for the things I sell.

Sales go up. Followers go up. Feedback comes in, new products are produced. It’s like pouring fertilizer on your plants, but your plants are your business.

So that’s what this is. Not just a cute top that is going to be in a fashion show, but a re-usable attention magnet that will have 20 other people helping me to promote my brand.

This might look differently for you, so here are some example for you to think about.

If you make business signage, this could look like working with building managers of a large office building to make a custom welcome sign, with a little business card of your own engraved in the corner that all the tenants of the building will see every time they walk in.

Or even something small scale I recommended to someone in my Laser Lair group – free to join by the way, link below. I suggested to make some fun magnets to put on her workplace community fridge that she could either sell – or would act as a “conversation piece” for coworkers to reach out for custom work.

If you make kitchen wares for example, seek out a local pie eating contest and ask to be part of the prize package. You can engrave custom pie server spatulas for all the contestants! Win or lose, they’ll be showing those to friends and family and of course you put your contact info on there, so there you go!

It just takes a little outside of the box thinking and forging a collaboration with people who can help.

Conclusion

The Bambu H2D made this project possible in ways I genuinely didn’t anticipate when I started. The 3D printing. The laser cut acrylic. And that plotter knife saved the day.

If you are in the market for a 3D printer that is actually 3 machines all bundled up in one powerhouse, this is for you!

Tell me in the comments: what kind of collaborations have you done? I love getting inspired by all of you. Together, we can make some big things happen!

And if you want to see how the Bambu H2D holds up with a laser attachment and get even more business ideas brewing, then check out this article next.

Thank you so much and Happy Crafting!