How Rocky Top Jesus Came to Life 🧡

A Little Faith, a Lot of Rocky Top & One Mom Sending Her Boy Off to College

Some Crew 3D Lab creations start with a plan.

This one started with me looking at a little 3D-printed Jesus and saying...

“OOOO...WE NEED A TN JESUS!” 😂🧡

Trevor was getting ready to leave for his freshman year at the University of Tennessee, and we were reprinting one of our regular Jesus designs that we had previously purchased.

The second the idea hit me, I called Trevor.

“WE NEED A TN JESUS.”

His response?

“YES! DO IT!”

And that was pretty much all the encouragement I needed.

Okay...But the T Had to POP

Turning our regular Jesus into Rocky Top Jesus wasn't quite as simple as changing a few filament colors.

Obviously, he needed his Tennessee orange.

But he also needed that T.

I started designing, printing and testing to figure out exactly how to make it work. The placement had to be right, and I played with the inset and offset until the T sat correctly and really POPPED against the orange.

There were test prints. Adjustments. More test prints.

Eventually, we got him just right.

Our approximately 2-inch Rocky Top Jesus was officially ready for Rocky Top.

And we finished that first batch just in time for freshman move-in.

A Little Jesus for Mom, Too 🧡

I originally started with the keychain version for a pretty simple reason.

I wanted a little piece of Jesus and a little prayer for my boy with me wherever I went.

Sending your oldest off to college is exciting.

It's also...sending your oldest off to college. 🧡

So having that little Rocky Top Jesus hanging around with me felt appropriate.

He's also turned out to be a pretty great conversation starter. 😂

We now make him as both a Keychain and Desk Buddy, and Trevor got one of those Desk Buddies, too.

Except his had a very specific destination.

Before we sent him off to college, I put together a medicine box with all those things a mom knows her kid is eventually going to need.

And yes...

I stuck a Rocky Top Jesus in there.

Because I knew the first time he got sick away from home, he'd need a little Jesus, too. 😉

Then Rocky Top Welcomed Us 🧡

We took that first batch with us when we moved Trevor into UT.

And that's when Rocky Top Jesus became something a little different.

We started giving them away.

To the parking attendants.

To the people helping us figure out where we were going.

To the people showing us how to get to his dorm.

To his ROTC instructors.

To other ROTC moms.

Basically, if you helped our family along the way, there was a pretty good chance we were going to hand you a tiny orange Jesus. 😂

It became our little way of saying thank you to all the people who were showing us why Rocky Top was exactly where Trevor was supposed to be.

Then Came Our First Tennessee Game

On September 19, we went to our first-ever Tennessee football game.

The first UT game any of us had ever attended.

And it happened to be the Salute to Service game against Kennesaw State, which made an already special first game mean even more to our family.

Trevor is in ROTC, and if everything goes according to plan, during next year's Salute to Service game, he'll commission into the United States Army.

So yeah.

This one meant a little more. ❤️

And naturally, Rocky Top Jesus came with us.

Apparently We Just Hand Out Jesus Now 😂

Once again, we started handing them out.

Parking attendants got a Jesus.

People who helped direct us to the right gate got a Jesus.

And then there were the ladies sitting directly in front of us.

We knew what was coming.

If you know our family, you know we are ALL LEGS.

We warned them there was a pretty good chance somebody was getting knee'd in the head before the night was over.

So naturally...

they got Jesus, too.

And yes.

We did eventually knee them. 😂

Sorry, ladies.

Hopefully Jesus made up for it.

And Then Came...That Other Team 😏

Of course, living in Middle Tennessee means we're surrounded by plenty of those Crimson people.

You know.

Fans of that other team. 😂

So Rocky Top Jesus eventually needed a counterpart.

Enter Roll Tide Jesus.

And apparently, Jesus wasn't quite as excited about wearing crimson.

We print these little guys in plates of around 50 at a time.

Of the first three plates of Roll Tide Jesus we attempted, two had something go wrong during the print and had to go straight into the trash.

Coincidence?

We'll let you decide. 😂🧡

Thankfully, Roll Tide Jesus eventually decided to cooperate, and we've since had a successful plate come off the printers.

Rocky Top Jesus Is Getting Some Friends

And we're definitely not stopping with Tennessee and Alabama.

We've already printed some Royal Blue Jesus figures that will eventually get separate logos for Tennessee State University (TSU) and Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).

Those logos are larger than the Tennessee T and Alabama A, so we're approaching those a little differently. They'll be made separately and attached afterward.

There's also a Navy Blue Jesus waiting for an Auburn makeover.

That one's for one of our favorite teachers, FRANKS!

To know her is to love her. ❤️

And then there's our next idea...

Because Apparently We Need a GIANT Rocky Top Jesus 😂

The regular Rocky Top Jesus stands about 2 inches tall.

So obviously, the next completely reasonable thing to do is make one that's approximately...

10 INCHES TALL.

😂

We're thinking a giant Rocky Top Jesus might be perfect for the Crew 3D Lab booth.

Kind of like our Giant Duck draws people over to the Duck table.

Except this time...

GIANT JESUS.

How do you walk past that without stopping?

We'll let you know. 😂

A Little Faith, a Lot of Rocky Top 🧡

What started as a random idea while we were printing one afternoon turned into something I didn't really expect.

Rocky Top Jesus started as something for Trevor.

Then he became something for me, a little reminder I could carry around with me while my boy was away at school.

And somewhere along the way, he became our family's funny little way of saying thank you to the people who helped make Rocky Top feel like home.

Now he's traveling around on keychains, hanging out on desks, starting conversations, showing up at football games and apparently multiplying into an entire collection of college football Jesuses.

And I kind of love that.

Sometimes the best things we make aren't the things we planned.

They just start with...