Welcome to Soft Thorn Prints LLC: Creativity, Community & 3D Printing
Welcome to the very first Soft Thorn Prints LLC blog post!
If you’ve found your way here, I’m glad you stopped by. Soft Thorn Prints LLC is a veteran-owned small business built around something I genuinely enjoy: taking an idea and turning it into something real through 3D printing.
What started with a fascination for 3D printing has grown into a business focused on creating unique home décor, gifts, functional pieces, and custom projects—with a little Southwest personality mixed in along the way.
More Than Just Pressing “Print”
One of the things I love most about 3D printing is just how much is possible.
A finished piece might begin as an idea, a sketch, a customer request, or sometimes simply a thought of, “I wonder if I can make that?”
From there comes designing, testing, choosing materials and colors, printing prototypes, making adjustments, and occasionally starting over completely. Not every idea works the first time—and that is part of the fun.
The finished product is only the last step of a much longer creative process.
At Soft Thorn Prints, you'll find modern and desert-inspired designs, home décor, unique gifts, and other creations that caught my imagination along the way. Many designs are also available in different colors, allowing you to choose something that better fits your home, personality, or the person you're buying it for.
Something a Little Different
There are plenty of places to buy home décor and gifts. I'm not trying to turn Soft Thorn Prints into another big-box store.
One of the advantages of being a small maker is that I don't have to think like one.
I can experiment with a new design because I think it's interesting. I can print something in a color that isn't normally offered. I can make changes, try something unusual, or work directly with a customer who has an idea they haven't been able to find anywhere else.
Instead of thousands of identical products sitting on a warehouse shelf, Soft Thorn Prints is about creating things on a much smaller and more personal scale.
That doesn't mean every piece has to be completely custom. Sometimes you just want to find something you love, choose your favorite color, and order it.
But when you want something a little different, there's a real person on the other side of the website who can actually say, “Let's see if we can make that.”
Custom Projects Are Part of the Adventure
Some of my favorite projects start with someone asking:
“Can you make something like this?”
The answer is often, “Let’s see!”
Custom 3D printing opens up possibilities that aren't always available with traditional, mass-produced products. An existing idea can sometimes be resized or personalized, while other projects may begin completely from scratch.
That process—figuring out how to turn someone's idea into a physical object—is one of the reasons Soft Thorn Prints exists.
A Small Business With a Bigger Purpose
Soft Thorn Prints LLC is also about more than the products I make.
After retiring from the U.S. Army in 2024, I wanted the business I built afterward to reflect some of the things that remain important to me: service, community, creativity, and giving back.
That is why 10% of every purchase is donated to the USO.
Every order supports a small, veteran-owned business, but it also helps me support an organization that serves service members and their families.
It’s something I’m proud to have built into Soft Thorn Prints from the beginning.
Inspired by the Desert
Living in Arizona has inevitably found its way into what I create.
You'll probably notice a few cacti around here.
Okay...maybe more than a few.
The colors, shapes, plants, and character of the Southwest provide plenty of inspiration, and you'll see that influence throughout many Soft Thorn Prints designs. At the same time, I don't want Soft Thorn Prints to be limited to a single style.
If something is interesting, useful, beautiful, weird, fun, or presents an interesting design challenge, there's a pretty good chance I'll want to try printing it.
What's Coming to the Blog
This blog is going to be another way to bring you behind the scenes of Soft Thorn Prints.
I'll share new designs, works in progress, custom projects, experiments that worked—and probably a few that spectacularly didn't.
We'll also explore how 3D-printed products are designed and made, different materials and colors, the technology behind 3D printing, and some of the decisions that go into creating the products you see in the shop.
Most importantly, I want this to be a place where you can see the creative process rather than only the finished product.
This Is Just the Beginning
Soft Thorn Prints LLC is still growing, changing, experimenting, and finding new things to create.
And that's exactly what makes this exciting.
Thank you for visiting, supporting a small business, and taking a look at what I'm building.
Whether you find the perfect piece in the shop, have an idea for a custom project, or simply want to follow along to see what comes off the printers next, I'm happy you're here.
Welcome to Soft Thorn Prints LLC.
Let's make something interesting.