Every year someone asks whether a printed ornament is going to hold up like a real one. Fair question, so here is the honest version from the shop floor in Denton, Texas.
They do not shatter
Glass ornaments fail in three places: the drive home, the cat, and the storage tote in the attic. Our ornaments are printed in PLA, a rigid bioplastic that flexes slightly instead of exploding. Drop one on a hardwood floor and you pick it up. That matters most in houses with kids, dogs, or a tree in a high-traffic hallway. Browse our ornaments.
What those faint lines are
Look closely at any printed object and you will see fine horizontal lines. That is not a defect; it is how the object was built, one thin layer of melted filament at a time. We tune our layer height to keep them subtle and we hand finish every piece, but we are never going to claim they look injection molded, because they are not. Most people read the texture as handmade, which is exactly what it is.
Color does not fade the way paint does
The color in a printed ornament is in the material itself rather than sprayed on the surface, so it does not chip off an edge after three seasons in a box. Metallic filaments get their shimmer from particles mixed through the plastic for the same reason.
Care, in three lines
Keep them out of a hot car and off a sunny dashboard, because PLA softens around 140F. Wipe with a damp cloth rather than running them through the dishwasher. Store them in a tote in a closet instead of an uninsulated attic in a Texas summer. Do that and they will outlive the tree.
Where the designs come from
We print in small batches on our own machines, which is why we can release new designs mid-season and offer colors nobody stocks. It also means if you want a set in one specific color, you can just ask. See the full holiday decor collection, or the flameless lighted decor if you want the candlelight look with no fire risk.