liv cameo

Yesterday I made this cameo of my daughter, Olivia. She and I had created some 3D scans during winter break and I finally got around to cutting this one. We had a lot of fun with the kids making faces while I scanned them. I've been 3D scanning with a Sense handheld scanner since I purchased my first one back in Milwaukee when I started the DCRL (Digital Craft Research Lab). It was always a big hit with my classes but I just haven't had the opportunity to use it in my work much, although I've thought about doing so quite a bit.

I’ve been wanting to create this work since giving my casting class an assignment entitled “Reimagining the Cameo” four semesters ago here at AppState. The project garnered some good results and I’ve been wanting to participate myself, and I finally had some free time yesterday. I created the additional components to the scan in Rhino and then ran the CAM on my Tormach mill. This was the first time I've run my Tormach since moving into the new shop. I had done such a thorough clean job on the mill I had been dragging my feet with using it, as I didn't want to create a mess. It was so nice to have clean cutting fluid flowing while cutting this. 

The piece came out great with the exception of some machining lines where I altered my Feed Rate Override settings. No bother though, I cut a second version since I didn't like how Liv was not centered well in the elliptical form. I ran that one (not pictured here last night). Now I’m anxious to make the chain for this pendant. 

I’ll have samples from this piece at ECU in a couple weeks. Also look for a summer workshop with the same title @pocosinarts that I’ll be teaching in late July if you’re interested in how this is created. 

Also thank you to all of you who have commented about me being back on the blog. I appreciate hearing your kind words.