In one of my previous articles, I wrote about Wacom Pen Holders for Digital Artists.

This time I want to take exclusively a closer look at Wachibi Stylus Holders by Freakfinity, compare it to a standard Wacom Pen Holder, and show you how it’s created!

But first, if you are not familiar with digital painting and graphic tablets, here’s a few basic pieces of information.

What is a pen stand 

A pen stand is an item of utility as it is used to store pens, pencils, or other small stationary items.
Wachibi (and many other Pen Stands for Digital Artists) are mostly a Single Pen holders, and they have a place to storage nibs on the underside.

Wacom pen stand (for Digital Artists):

This is a pen stand that comes together with Wacom’s graphic tablet – other companies also provide pen stands for their graphic tablets. I also own a tablet made by Huion, and the stand looks very similar to the Wacom’s.

Such stands are also a storage for pen nibs. The nibs are already included when you purchase the pen stand from Wacom (and most companies too).

Pen nibs storage:

Wachibi stylus holder

Wachibi are a custom made pen stands that are 3d printed. They come in various cool models and therefore make a great gift for your artistic friends.

The hole underneath Wachibi (you can see it on the third photo) is for storing pen nibs (SD cards etc. can be also stored there).

There are already more than 30 designs you can pick from! And new designs are still being created, so there will be even more models of Wachibi in the future.

A few important things about Wachibi:

• When you purchase Wachibi, you can pick the color of your model. There are 7 colors you can pick: red, pink, blue, green, purple, yellow and black. 

• Another important thing is to select the model of your graphic tablet – this info is needed in order to print for you a pen stand, that will be 100% compatible with your stylus. ​Wachibi Pen Holers are compatible with Wacom, XP-Pen, Apple Pencil, Huion, Microsoft Pens, and Logitech pens.If you use a graphic tablet that is not listed, you can reach out to the Freakfinity.com and ask them for help.
  Author note: I have a feeling that many companies are inspired by Wacom, and their pen sizes are similar to the Wacom’s. I also own Huion, and their stylus is really similar – it fits my Wachibi Wacom Stylus Holder perfectly. 

• Wachibi ordered with paint jobs are hand crafted on order (contact Freakfinity.com for more info).  You can paint them yourself, so if you plan to do so, select the light color of your model (pink for example).

I have one wachibi stylus holder, the model is called Trojan Unicorn (Thank you Jonathan! 😀 ) It’s a really clever design, where the pen is part of the sculpture, taking place of the horn.
Below is a photo comparison between Wacom, Wachibi Trojan Unicorn, and Huion Pen stands:

Its color matches the rest of my equipment, which is black/red (as you can see in the first image of this article) so it looks great, but in other colors, it’s also impressive  🙂

The Wachibi is surprisingly light (I expected it to be a bit more heavier), and from all 3 stands I own, the Wacom’s stand is the heaviest. However, It doesn’t bother me, it stands firmly on my desk.  Wachibi stands come in different models, but their sizes are very similar ( a bit bigger than Wacom’s).

If you are curious about Wachibi’s texture on its surface, it’s because of materials used for print (print in PLA), and the print time (A Wachibi can take as much as 9 hrs to print with all its accessories.) Here’s more pieces of information about this from Freakfinity.com:

We print in PLA

Why don’t you print with superior high resolution liquid resin?

Liquid resin printing may produce superior quality prints. But has many downsides.

For one it is not economically friendly.
Prints take far, far longer. Resin is exceptionally expensive, not to mention toxic & does not come in as many colours & materials as FDM filaments.

Resin printing today is predominately used for producing mold masters and some machine working prototypes.

*You can find more information about 3d printing and material used, in the section named “How pen stands are made”

Wachibi Mini

There’s also the Wachibi Mini model, with a possibility of customizing – printing your name on it.

I think is really nice idea when you need a present for your digital artist friend, but you are not sure what she/he might like. Wachibi Mini with a print of their artistic alias will be a safe choice in this case.

What is Freakfinity?

Official website: www.freakfinity.com  |  Instagram  |  Facebook  |  Youtube  | Etsy

Freakfinity is a collectibles company located in Malta, and run by Jonathan Shaller – an artist that stands behind the creation of Wachibi, including the designs. He has many years of experience as a Digital Sculptor and Video Game Artist. Jonathan is also member of the E-Nable organisation and assists in the creation of 3D printed Childrens prosthetics.

How pen stands are made

Wachibi pen stands are 3d sculpted, below you can see a video of creating the I scream model.

After the design is ready, it’s 3d printed. Here’s a video of printing the Trojan Unicorn, in pink color – it’s rather a glimpse than a record of the whole process because it can take as much as 9 hrs to print.

About the print:

At Freakfinity Wachibi is produced with FDM printing (fused deposition modeling). FDM is one of the most common forms of 3d printing. It allows for a multitude of vibrant colors and the most time, cost effective 3d printing.

FDM uses material extrusion to print items, where a feedstock material is pushed through an extruder. In most fused filament fabrication 3D printing machines, the feedstock material comes in the form of a filament wound onto a spool. You can see it in the photo below:
The material used for printing is PLA – Polylactic acid (The name “polylactic acid” does not comply with IUPAC standard nomenclature, and is potentially ambiguous or confusing, because PLA is not a polyacid (polyelectrolyte), but rather a polyester).

I’m not very familiar with 3d printing, so I will be honest with you – while writing this section, I’m basing on the information provided by Wikipedia. There’s a lot of things I don’t know about 3d printing, and materials, but this one information surprised me very positively:

 PLA can degrade into innocuous lactic acid, so it is used as medical implants in the form of anchors, screws, plates, pins, rods, and as a mesh. Depending on the exact type used, it breaks down inside the body within 6 months to 2 years

Disposable bottles and dishes are also produced from PLA – PLA is biodegradable under industrial composting conditions. If you are wondering about recycling – SPI resin identification code 7 (“others”) is applicable for PLA. In Belgium, Galactic started the first pilot unit to chemically recycle PLA (Loopla).

*If this topic interests you, you can read more on the Wikipedia page: Polylactic acid

I’ve searched the internet for a while to get a better understanding of the difference between materials used for 3d printing, and which one of them is most eco-friendly. And according to Grist.org article “What’s the most eco-friendly material for a 3D printer?” – PLA is the winner.

Wachibi Classics

Throughout this article, you saw mainly photos of one Wachibi model – the Trojan Unicorn. So, here are some other models that I personally like!

For clarification – I like them all, but don’t want to copy-paste every product from the Freakfinity store, obviously. These designs attracted my attention, so the list is subjective, as every person has their own tastes.

If you are looking for a pen stand for yourself, I would recommend you to visit the Wachibi Classics on Freakfinity and take a look at all available models.

Ok, back to my list.

Let’s start with vodka. Vodka is what keeps me rolling through the day. Um, I mean COFFEE, of course, it is coffee, forget what I said about vodka. Here’s one of my most favorite Wachibi Pen Stands: Do Epic SH!T

And here’s Chinese Dragon Pen Holder, because it looks awesome.

Tentacles, because who doesn’t love tentacles?

This carnivorous plant stylus stand – Killa Fly Trap !

I’m an owner of 2 carnivorous plants, Dionaea Muscipla, and Drosera capensis. Since I shared a dormitory and lived for a year with my vegetarian friend (Hi Sylwia!), I have a weak spot for any carnivorous plant.

It became a goal of my life to own one, and feed them with meat anytime my vegetarian friend visits me. Just joking! You can’t feed them with meat.  All meats are too rich and have harmful fats that will become rancid in indoor temperatures. So if you don’t know how/have time to take care of a carnivorous plant, this substitute will be perfect 😉

This pile of skulls pen stand – Apocalypse. Because it reminds me of my childhood, or more precisely – the time when someone decided it’s a good idea to take little kids from primary school for a school trip to visit the Skull Chapel in Czermna (you can check out the link on your own risk, I’m not going to pay for your therapy sessions).

And the last Wachibi design on this list – Skark Surprise!

It’s 2020 when I’m writing this article, and we are in the middle of Pandemia <3 Many of us are stuck in homes. And this photo makes me want to drop everything, leave the country, change my name and start a new live somewhere near the beach, preferably on Malta.

Okay, guys, I think that’s enough for today. I have to pack my stuff and check out the flights to Malta.

Thank you Jonathan for creating Wachibi, and I wish you, everyone, safe summer.
Btw, please let me know what is your favourite Wachibi model and why in the comments! 🙂