picture: Heracles Vs The Neman Lion

[Nick Silva]

this was part of my 'greek' series of vessels. It is a bleached maple vase with a greek motif reproduction. This was originally a round picture. Notice how it came out an oval - but I admit it still looks nice.
Sometimes you just get lucky.

[Mac McAtee]

Neat work, I like it! How is the picture produced?

[Frank G]

The backgound came out oval but the characters seem in proportion. Even the name. Did you move the vase or am I just not understanding something.

[Byron Trantham]

I think this is another one of those "mistakes" that end up being a "feature". I think the oval pattern complements the vertical lines of the vase. Looks intentional to me. The result is very pleasing.

[Nick Silva]

Neat work, I like it! How is the picture produced?

That was a LOT of work in photoshop. I can't remember the exact source of the motif, but I think I scanned it from a book. Then it was a matter of lightening and darkening areas before converting it to B/W (a raster picture). This was before I really knew how to use photoshop so I probably could do it much faster these days. peace.

[Nick Silva]

The backgound came out oval but the characters seem in proportion. Even the name. Did you move the vase or am I just not understanding something.

ah good question. Well the vase has a slight curve to it, but for the most part there is a definite flat taper to it. I raised one end of the rotary fixture so that the majority of the engraved area would be perpindicular to the beam. I guess that is why the only stretching is in the up/down direction. As the fixture turns, the left right direction stays perpindicular the entire time. Thats why the letters came out correctly. peace.

[Nick Silva]

I think this is another one of those "mistakes" that end up being a "feature". I think the oval pattern complements the vertical lines of the vase. Looks intentional to me. The result is very pleasing.

thanks for the kind words. Engraving is like woodworking/woodturning in that we do a lot of the same things over and over. Unfortuantely we don't always get to try all the neat 'features' in the software or experiment as much as we'd like to. I mean, it isn't like painting where if you mess up you just paint over the mistake. You pretty much get one chance so you got to make it count. So, I'm always thrilled when I try something different and it actually works out. I keep a notebook by my laser to write these things down when something works so I know how to reproduce the effect later. peace.