Forest lady - step by step

Peter's second sign of this series is a classic. The elf maiden on each side will be hand sculpted using sculpting epoxy. The main board will be routed from 30 lb Precision Board.

Forest Lady

Import the design and draw the shapes you will need.

Once you have your shapes drawn you can begin to create the reliefs.

Begin by creating a round relief for the inner shield shape.

 Modify your shield relief by raising the woman silhouette. 

 Modify the shield relief again by lowering the leaf shape.

 Add wood grain texture to the shield by applying a bitmap.

Create a new zero height relief for the ‘Forest  Lady’ text outline.

Then modify outline relief with the middle shield shape.

Next cut the outline into the shield by merging the outline relief with the shield relief.

 Now create a new zero height relief with the larger text outline.

  Merge the first outline relief with the second outline relief.

Modify your relief with the ‘Forest Lady’ text.

Combine the shield relief with the text relief.

Now create a zero height relief for the main section of the scroll.

Modify the scroll relief with the largest shield shape.

Modify the scroll relief with the ‘spirits of the sprites’ text.

Create two round reliefs for the scroll tails. 

Combine the shield and scroll reliefs.

The Forest Lady sign is now ready to toolpath.

Coat of arms

Peter Sawatzky, my partner (and son) also works with EnRoute and our MultiCam CNC router and plasma cutter. He does some pretty amazing projects. From time to time he'll be posting them here. It is our hope that with one more voice describing his techniques and methods, hopefully there will be one more source of learning and inspiration. His first post if a little family crest he did for his lovely wife, Hailey's recent birthday.

• Import your design into Enroute.

I start the project with a loose sketch of a coat of arms featuring a zebra head and three bumblebees.

• Draw your shapes in Enroute.

Using my sketch as a guide, I carefully draw each of the shapes I will use to create my reliefs.

• Create your reliefs.

Each of the reliefs is created separately - they will be merged together just before toolpathing.

The majority of the reliefs are made with the flat and round "create relief" tools. However the bee's wings are made with the "smooth relief edit" tool.

Using the "smooth relief edit" tool, I slowly build up the ends of the wings so that they emerge from the bee's body.

• Apply bitmaps to your reliefs.

The ribbon appears to wind over and under itself -  this is done by applying a custom bitmap to the ribbon relief.

I use a black and white image - when I apply the bitmap to the relief the black areas do not change my relief but the white areas raise my relief 0.25". Basically, the lighter the shade of grey the higher it raises my relief.

The stripes on the zebra are applied using the same technique. However, I set the white areas to raise the zebra relief a tenth of an inch.

• Merge your reliefs and add your toolpaths

Once each of the pieces has been finished I align and merge them to create a single relief ready for toolpathing.

Once routed, the coat of arms is ready for paint.