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Mesh leaf dish

A 130 mm honeycomb leaf dish for keys and trinkets. Print it flat, warm it, press it into shape.

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3D render of a green leaf shaped honeycomb mesh dish with a stem, in front of the orange and blue press halves that form it
Print only ~63 g

A leaf shaped dish, 130 mm long with its stem, 59 mm wide and 16 mm deep, with a honeycomb net and a solid rim. The tip curves a little to one side, the way a real leaf does, and the short stem is solid, so you can pick the dish up by it. It holds keys, rings, hair ties or sweets on a hall table or a bedside.

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Made with our mesh former. The net prints flat in about 55 minutes, with no supports. Warm it with a heat gun or a hair dryer, lay it in the printed cavity and push the plug down on it, and it keeps the dish shape once it cools. The press is printed once, so a second leaf in another colour costs one more 7 g net.

The zip has the net, the plug, the cavity, a print sheet and the leaf outline as an SVG, which you can drop on the mesh former to change the size, the depth or the net pattern.

Shown as a 3D render of the formed dish in front of the two press halves, not a photo.

What you need

3
  • About 7 g of PETG or PLA for the net, and 57 g of PLA once for the press
  • A heat gun, or a hair dryer on its hottest setting
  • Heat resistant gloves, or a folded towel to press the plug with

How to make it

5

  1. Print the net, the plug and the cavity flat on the bed.

  2. Lay the net in the cavity's pocket, flat face down, so the small pins go through the holes in its rim.

  3. Warm the net with the heat gun kept moving 15 to 20 cm away, until it goes limp. Keep the heat off the rim and the stem.

  4. Push the plug straight down into the cavity and hold it for about a minute while the net cools.

  5. Lift the plug and take the leaf out.

Print details

4 h 34 minPrint time
~63 gFilament
3Printed parts
59 × 130 × 19 mmSize (W x D x H)
All print details
Print details
TypePrint only
Printed parts3
Size (W x D x H)59 x 130 x 19 mm
Print bed needed138 x 67 mm, 21 mm tall
Filament~63 g
Layer height0.2 mm
Infill10%
SupportsNot needed
DownloadZIP: flat net + press plug + press cavity (STL) + outline (SVG) + print sheet
Added2026-09-25

ZIP: flat net + press plug + press cavity (STL) + outline (SVG) + print sheet

Make your own mesh former →

Made with the free Mesh former generator. Upload your own drawing and get the same kind of part built from it, in your browser.

Free for personal use. Selling the pieces you cast needs a commercial licence (Pro or Founder); passing on the file itself is not permitted on any plan. Full terms.

New to casting? Read the mesh former guide.

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Questions about this design

What stays in the mesh leaf dish without falling through?

Anything bigger than the cells, which are about 5 mm across: keys, coins, rings, hair ties, a watch or wrapped sweets. Earring backs, tiny screws and seed beads can slip through, so for those drop the outline on the mesh former and make the cells smaller.

Which colours make the leaf dish look best?

Green reads as a fresh leaf all year. For autumn, print a few in orange, red and gold and set them together on a table, or use a silk or colour changing PLA so each leaf comes out different. The net is only 7 g, so a whole pile of leaves costs very little.

Can I press the leaf dish from a real leaf I picked up?

Yes. Lay the leaf flat on white paper, take a photo straight from above and upload it to the mesh former, which traces the outline and builds a net and a matching press for it. A broad, rounded leaf forms best; a leaf with deep, narrow lobes like a maple or an oak stretches the net much thinner over each lobe.

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