Tails and Sea Monsters
From an idea to a real piece.
Tails and Sea Monsters started as a demonstration. We wanted to verify how quickly you can move from a mental image to a large format object that stands, moves and holds up to close inspection.
The collection
Organic shapes, continuous surfaces, dimensions that belong to installation rather than to furniture. Every piece is made in CoreLight3D® with the same structural logic NUGAE applies to boats: material only where it is needed. The result looks monumental, and moves easily.
There are no moulds, so there are no obligatory shapes. If a geometry can be imagined, it can be built, and changing it does not mean starting over.
Facts
- Material
- CoreLight3D® by NUGAE, recycled thermoplastic
- Weight
- 3 to 5 kg per figure
- Printing time
- 5 to 8 hours per figure
- Size
- Figures up to about 160 cm tall
- Wall thickness
- 1 to 3 mm
- Production
- Unique pieces, made to order
Lighea
Lighea is the outdoor sculpture of the collection, made as a single piece: 120 by 105 centimetres, 2 centimetres thick, 5 kg in weight, 8 hours of printing. It is designed to stay outdoors and withstand the weather, and its surface takes any kind of finish.
Lighea works in a garden, at home, in a lobby, in an office or in the middle of a square: it weighs as much as a cabin suitcase and one hand moves it.
The name comes from a Sicilian story. Lighea is the siren of La sirena by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, written in the last months of the author's life and published in 1961, after his death: an old Hellenist remembers the summer when he met her on the deserted coast near Augusta. Before that, Lighea is one of the three sirens of Greek mythology, together with Parthenope and Leucosia, and in Greek her name means the clear voice.
A public sound installation
Eight large sea creatures, among them claws, tentacles and tails, were printed for a public sound installation in Naples. They had to be assembled outdoors in a few days, host sensors and wiring inside them and vibrate like acoustic instruments. Every figure weighs 3 to 4 kilos, measures up to about 160 centimetres and takes around five hours to print. One person can lift it.
The installation was staged in December 2025.
The material
CoreLight3D® is the material developed by NUGAE for large format additive manufacturing: a recycled thermoplastic core, light, workable and suited to staying outdoors. The walls are thin, 1 to 3 millimetres, supported by an ultralight internal texture.
All the photos
Click a photo to see it in full.
Unique pieces and installations, from the idea to the finished object.