Earlier this year, the widely beloved 3D printer manufacturer Prusa Research decided to throw its hat into the filament game, releasing a line of 3D printing materials branded as Prusament. Founded by Josef Prusa, the Czech-based company has already conquered the desktop FDM printing market with the Original Prusa i3 MK3 and its predecessors. But as of recently, the Prusa team has since expanded into filament production and even SLA 3D printing.

The Prusa team is currently selling a colorful range of PLA materials and will release PETG and ASA in the near future. Not only is Prusament manufactured in-house, thoroughly tested, and inspected for quality control, but it also comes winded on a useful spool. Usually, once a spool of filament has finished serving its purpose, the user is left with an empty mini-Ferris wheel of plastic waste.

However, Dominik Císař, Art Director and Creative Content Specialist at Prusa Research, has recently shared a few interesting and fun ways to reuse a bare Prusament spool. One project he shared was the 3D Zoetrope, a classic twist on the 19th-century optical toy that rotates pictures to create the impression of continuous motion. In this case, the spool is used as the base, spinning an array of 3D printed Sheep to make it look as if they’re jumping for joy.

In today’s Weekend Project, we’ll take a look at this particular Prusament-based 3D printing project. While we’re unsure about whether this Zoetrope can be created from any old spool, this project still provides some inspiration into how you can recycle spools and make 3D printing more sustainable.

Let’s take a closer look!