Not every print makes it. Sometimes we come back after hours of printing to find a bag that has warped, shifted or collapsed into a tangle of plastic.
It can be frustrating, but failed prints are part of the craft. Each one teaches us something, and those lessons are built into every bag that does make it to you. Here is an honest look at what goes wrong behind the scenes, and what we do about it.
What can go wrong
A bag takes around 14 hours to print, and a lot can happen in that time. These are the most common problems with 3D printing in PLA:
- Warping: as layers cool, the corners can lift and curl away from the print bed, bending the base of the bag out of shape.
- Layer shifting: if the printer head slips even slightly, every layer after it is printed off-centre, leaving a visible step in the design.
- Losing grip on the bed: if the first layers don't stick properly, the whole print can come loose and turn into what makers call "spaghetti", a nest of tangled filament.
- Stringing: fine, hair-like threads of plastic stretch across gaps in the pattern, especially in open, lattice-style designs.
- Weak or broken details: thin parts, like delicate patterns or handle joints, can print fragile or fail to form at all.
- Interruptions: a filament jam or a power cut part-way through can stop a print that has already run for hours.
What we do when a print fails
Every print is inspected as soon as it comes off the printer. What happens next depends on the problem:
- Small flaws are fixed by hand. Stray threads, rough spots and minor marks are cleaned up and polished away.
- Bigger issues mean starting again. If a print has too many problems to fix properly, we print it again from the beginning, even after 14 hours of work.
- We find the cause before reprinting. A failed print usually points to something we can adjust, whether that's a printer setting, the bed preparation or the design itself.
It costs us time and material, but we would rather reprint a bag than send you one we are not proud of.
Our TPU experiment
One failure taught us more than most. We wanted our bags to feel even more comfortable, so we tried printing a Sea & Pearls bag in TPU, a softer, flexible material, instead of our usual PLA.
After waiting more than 20 hours for the print to finish, the bag came out defective, with problems that simply could not be fixed. It was a frustrating moment: a full day of printing, plus the time, money and material, gone.
But it gave us a clear answer. For our designs, PLA is the right choice: durable, comfortable to use, and able to hold the detail our patterns need. Sometimes the most valuable experiment is the one that shows you what not to do.
What failures taught us
Our mistakes have shaped the way we design. Over time, they taught us to:
- Design for the printer, not just the eye. A shape can look perfect on screen and still be impossible to print cleanly, so printability is now part of every design from the start.
- Strengthen the parts that carry weight. Handles and joints are where a bag works hardest, so we give them extra attention.
- Test before we commit. Trying out a section or a smaller sample can reveal a problem before it costs a full 14-hour print.
- Be patient. 3D printing rewards care and punishes shortcuts. Slowing down almost always gives a better result.
Every failed print makes the next design stronger.
Why it matters for your bag
The bag you receive is not just the print that worked. It carries everything we learned from the ones that didn't: better settings, stronger details and designs made to last.
That is the quiet side of handmade work. You see the finished piece; behind it are the hours, the reprints and the small adjustments that got it there.
Explore the collection to find your piece, or tell us your idea for a custom bag made especially for you