---
title: "Cracking Art and MX3D 3D print turtle sculptures from recycled metal"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/cracking-art-and-mx3d-3d-print-giant-turtles-from-recycled-metal/
date: 2025-03-17
modified: 2025-03-17
lang: en
author: "Tess Boissonneault"
description: "Italian art collective Cracking Art was founded in 1993 with the mission of exploring \"the relationship between natural and artificial reality\". In practice, the collective has become known for its..."
categories:
  - "Art"
  - "Metal Additive Manufacturing"
  - "Sustainability"
tags:
  - "future"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cracking-art-1-640x464.jpeg
word_count: 467
---

# Cracking Art and MX3D 3D print turtle sculptures from recycled metal

Italian art collective Cracking Art was founded in 1993 with the mission of exploring "the relationship between natural and artificial reality". In practice, the collective has become known for its over-sized installations, which introduce brightly colored animals—made from reclaimed plastic—into a variety of urban environments, from 23 marmot sculptures dotted around the Natural Science Museum of Italy's Aosta Valley, to a range of brightly hued snails strategically placed around Milan. While the art group is best known for its use of plastic as a medium, it has also started working with metal, leveraging large-format additive manufacturing to create animals from recycled steel.

Cracking Art's latest project was completed in collaboration with Dutch 3D printing company [MX3D](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/mx3d/), perhaps best known for producing a [canal bridge in Amsterdam](https://www.voxelmatters.com/mx3d-bridge-removed-after-two-year-permit-expires/) using its WAAM technology, and Novametal, a Swiss manufacturer of metal wires. Using high-quality steel wire from Novametal and MX3D's M-Metal 3D printing tech, Cracking Art has created a series of 3D printed turtles, which [according](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mx3d_m-waam-waam-activity-7305905496241131520-8YHK/) to MX3D "highlight the synergy between advanced WAAM technology and artistic vision, demonstrating how innovation can push creative boundaries while advocating for sustainability."

[![3D printed metal turtle Cracking Art MX3D](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cracking-art-2.jpeg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cracking-art-2.jpeg)3D printed turtle, Cracking Art

The AM company goes on to say: "By integrating robotic WAAM with digital and computational design, artists not only gain new creative possibilities but also benefit from sustainable production practices that minimize material waste and reduce lead times. This project seamlessly merges art, technology and sustainability, demonstrating the transformative potential of WAAM across multiple industries."

The turtles are not the first time that Cracking Art has worked with metal 3D printing: in 2022, the art collective created a larger-than-life wolf 3D printed from recycled steel. This piece, aptly called the Steel Wolf (*Il Lupo d’Acciaio*) was completed in collaboration with Italian steel fabricator Cogne Acciai Speciali.

[![3D printed metal turtle Cracking Art MX3D](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cracking-art-3.jpg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/cracking-art-3.jpg)The Steel Wolf, Cracking Art

Cracking Art's pieces are certainly eye-catching and do not shy away from linking nature and the artificial. By using recycled and reclaimed materials as media, the group's aim is quite explicitly to "inspire a community-wide conversation about the importance and the environmental impact of regeneration while leaving a potent artistic trace in the communities we live in."

MX3D's WAAM technology has been used for artistic ends many times before, including to 3D print a [whale sculpture, "The Whale Pass"](https://www.voxelmatters.com/the-whale-pass-sculpture-3d-printed-by-mx3d-in-turin/), weighing 880 kg. This art project was designed in 2022 by Studio C&C and was on display at the Royal Gardens in Torino, Italy. WAAM was also central in the creation of artist [Alyson Shotz's "Entangled" sculpture](https://www.voxelmatters.com/mx3d-prints-340kg-entangled-sculpture-designed-by-alyson-shotz/), a large-scale piece inspired by the pathway of two connected particles in space, which is hanging at the Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences (BTCIS) at Skidmore College in New York.

[![](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MX3D_the_whale_pass_1663243619654-e1663285044282.jpg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MX3D_the_whale_pass_1663243619654-e1663285044282.jpg)The Whale Pass, designed by Studio C&C