Sellable 3D Prints - Design a Tulip Bowl in Fusion

One of the biggest advantages of 3D printing is the ability to create unique, print-on-demand products—like this tulip bowl, perfect for Dutch-inspired home decor. This allows you to start a business with minimal upfront investment.

Watch the full Fusion tutorial at the end of this blog post.

Step 1: Creating the Bowl Base

I've already set up the ground component to save time, so let's jump straight into the design. Start by creating a center diameter circle at the origin—this serves as the foundation. For a small bowl, a 100 mm diameter works well, but feel free to adjust.

Instead of a thin extrusion, use a standard extrusion with a 15-degree taper to keep the workflow intuitive. Press Enter to confirm the settings. Next, use the Shell tool in the Solid workspace, setting a thickness that ensures durability while minimizing material waste. Save this thickness as a user parameter for later use.

Step 2: Preparing the Tulip Design

Use an offset plane to position your tulip sketch. The exact placement isn’t critical but helps maintain an organized design.

For the tulip shape, you can sketch your own design or import a licensed SVG file. Many SVGs import upside down, but you can easily flip them. Adjust the size as needed, and remember that Fusion’s parametric design allows later modifications.

Step 3: Refining the Sketch

Use the Extend tool to connect the tulip shape into a solid piece. A mouse with a scroll wheel makes zooming and adjustments easier. Extend the new lines, then use Trim to remove unnecessary ones.

Check the ViewCube for a better sense of progress. While selecting the entire tulip sketch at once is faster, selecting individual areas provides more flexibility when applying colors later.

Step 4: Embossing the Tulip Pattern

To make the tulip stand out, use the Emboss tool with a 2 mm emboss. This will raise the design above the surface. Alternatively, you can use Deboss to lower it.

Before rotating the design around the bowl, ensure the Circular Pattern is set to Feature. The origin axis makes the perfect reference for this pattern. Holding the left mouse button opens a menu for selecting items hidden behind others.

A default pattern of five tulips looks great, so press OK and check the result in the ViewCube.

Step 5: Removing Unnecessary Parts

Use Sketch Project on a predefined construction plane to remove parts of the tulip bowl. The purple lines indicate that the projection is linked to the original body.

Turn off the body’s visibility to easily delete extra projected tulips. Focus on the outer boundary of the projected bowl, then offset the line by the same thickness used earlier.

To create a closed profile, extend the sketch line until it meets the horizontal base. Then, turn the body’s visibility back on to check alignment.

Place a horizontal line where you want to cut off the upper part. I positioned mine at the tulip’s stem intersection.

Use the Revolve tool to cut along the central axis, removing the highlighted red area.

Step 6: Adding Chamfers for Detail

Before applying appearances, use Chamfer to create distinct faces, making it easier to apply colors later. Chamfers also improve durability and soften sharp edges for a more user-friendly design.

A 3 mm chamfer works well for this bowl, adding a subtle yet effective detail where the bottom meets the side.

Step 7: Applying Colors and Materials

Applying appearances before creating patterns saves time and avoids manual adjustments. For this vase, I used a matte green plastic as the base and refined it with a custom hex code from an online color palette.

Duplicate the color for consistency and switch to Face selection mode before applying it to specific areas like the tulip tops.

Step 8: Rendering the Final Design

Switch to the Render workspace from the top left corner. Right-click the canvas and open Scene Settings. Change the background from Solid Color to Photobooth for better lighting.

Use the mouse wheel to pan and find the perfect angle. Adjust the width and height ratio for specific formats, such as video thumbnails or e-commerce listings.

Step 9: Finalizing and Exporting

I ran three renderings simultaneously to save time—more shots mean a better chance of getting the perfect result.

Some might ask, why not create the tulip as a separate body, position it with a joint, and then use a circular pattern? That’s also a valid workflow. One of Fusion’s strengths is its multiple approaches to the same outcome.

Thanks, and see you in the next project!