Chinese Character Carving

[jpitz31]

Here is my latest carving. My wife is Chinese and her father is an award winning calligraphist.

If you cannot read Chinese characters, this is the character for Love.

Carved in purple heart, Wood was dyed using TransTint and finished with Zinsser Seal Coat Shellac.

I was attempting for the face of the character being black, raised carving and background being natural purple heart.

A textured background was carved behind the character, (hard to see)

Not sure If I like the deep purple heart color. My wife and her father really like it.

Character was scanned in on a flat bed scanner. Image was prepared for carving in Paint Shop Pro X2, saved as a bitmap file.

Height map and character bevel was created in Mesh Cam. Pattern imported into designer.

Carve time was around 45 minutes at "Best" setting.

Thanks

Joe

[PCW]

Hey Joe,

I love it. Thanks for sharing a little love. Good Job

[dholzric]

Can you use a chinese font with the text addon? I have thought about making up some chinese stuff for my inlaws from HK.

[jpitz31]

dholzric,

Not sure what you mean by a text addon? You can download many true type fonts that will allow you to type Chinese characters. You will also have to install the east Asian language pack in Windows if you want to type Chinese characters. If you are familiar with pinyin then it is pretty easy.

If not let me know I can work up some files for you.

Thanks

Joe

[James RS]

Here is my latest carving. My wife is Chinese and her father is an award winning calligraphist.

If you cannot read Chinese characters, this is the character for Love.

Carved in purple heart, Wood was dyed using TransTint and finished with Zinsser Seal Coat Shellac.

I was attempting for the face of the character being black, raised carving and background being natural purple heart.

A textured background was carved behind the character, (hard to see)

Not sure If I like the deep purple heart color. My wife and her father really like it.

Character was scanned in on a flat bed scanner. Image was prepared for carving in Paint Shop Pro X2, saved as a bitmap file.

Height map and character bevel was created in Mesh Cam. Pattern imported into designer.

Carve time was around 45 minutes at "Best" setting.

Thanks

Joe

I like it nice job,question what is this purple heart? I've never come across it before.

Thanks,
Jim

[PCW]

Joe,

Does your father in law specialize in just the Chinese Characters? Let him know that we love his work as well.

[RayTrek]

Joe,
Your project is all around beautiful. Carve, tinting, and finish and selection of wood have not carved Purple Heart yet it is a little hard to get locally and I like to see what I am getting.
Thanks Ray

[jpitz31]

I like it nice job,question what is this purple heart? I've never come across it before.

Thanks,
Jim

Jim,

Purple heart is an exotic hardwood from Central and South America.

Here is a wikipedia entry for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purpleheart

The wood is very dense and very heavy. The red does fade in UV light, so you want to seal it with a UV resist top coat. It does smell like musty socks when you are working with it. My wife came out into the garage and said what stinks?

Thanks

Joe

It sells in our area for around $6.00 a bd ft.

[jpitz31]

Joe,

Does your father in law specialize in just the Chinese Characters? Let him know that we love his work as well.

Dan,

Yes just Chinese calligraphy.

Thanks Dan I will pass this on.

Joe

[jpitz31]

Joe,
Your project is all around beautiful. Carve, tinting, and finish and selection of wood have not carved Purple Heart yet it is a little hard to get locally and I like to see what I am getting.
Thanks Ray

Thanks RayTrek,

The wood is very hard and dense and heavy.
When carving the, not much dust, but lots of little flakes all over the place.
The dust collector picked up most but the flakes were so heavy that at the end of the carve there was a pile of flakes lying at one end of the sled and carving.

Joe