scolba Entry 2 - Family Ornaments
The Process
This one was inspired by an early google search after I decided I can make a bunch of presents this year. I saw one (though I’m still not entirely sure how they did it) that was laser curt, and multiple layers with balls ornaments and names like these. I thought to myself, self, that shouldn’t be too hard to whip out in an afternoon. Ha.
I started with the design. I learned a lot about text from my other project, so had a bit of help with this one, converting to curves, then trimming the vectors.
I ended up going through several iterations in MDF, before trying other materials. I tried plywood first, but I don’t have any down cut bits yet, so that quickly became apparent it wasn’t going to work. Oak didn’t work, because oak. All my cherry and walnut is 4/4 and 5/4 and I couldn’t find any locally that was thinner. Ultimately I ended up resawing and planing the cherry down to about 3/8.
Mistakes and Lessons Learned
I really didn’t realize how small these letters and numbers had gotten. That combined with trying to jam them together, so they fit on a ball makes some of them nearly unreadable. At one point I was curing my family for giving everybody such long names. 
My niece, Charlotte, is barely readable, and my nephew Callahan…is just Cal. So I guess I mean to say that my mistake and lesson on this one is…I shouldn’t get so locked into a form factor and make sacrifices because of it. If had done an oval ornament, or a tree instead of ornament as the decoration, it would have been more interesting visually. An added bonus is then I wouldn’t have to worry about if my niece is upset because her name isn’t very readable.
- Be flexible in design. There are lots of great ways to accomplish similar goals.
- Thin, raised letters are hard. I feel like this is a level 200 type skill that I’ll get eventually.
- V bits can’t do it all, as in they have a lower limit to detail
- I need more (bigger variety of) bits!
- UNIFORM depth of stock is critical
- Spray lacquer isn’t a miracle worker
- Plan on using more stock than you think…something is going to go wrong.
- Plan Ahead - Big box stores, and even some specialty woodworker’s shops don’t have smaller bits available or in stock.
- New bandsaw resaw blades cut like a hot knife through butter. Stop using your old one because “it still has some life left”. Ask me how I know. lol
- I have a lot to learn
2023 Ornaments - VCarve.c2d (980 KB)
*Pardon the angled ornament - I was trying to avoid a bark inclusion
