Kids!

While my daughter has been away I've used her image to create a CAD project in an attempt learn the software I have called MOI.  I'm the sort of person who needs a project to really understand what I'm learning.  I guess you would call me a hands on learner.  Needless to say my daughter has been on my mind!

I'm nearly finished my cameo, however it won't be the perfectly polished flawless piece I was hoping to make.  When my digital image was printed in wax, so too were the horizontal lines produced by the printer. On top of that, when the wax was cast in silver, several imperfections showed up in the cast itself.  These imperfections have gone unnoticed in previous castings as they disappeared in the organic nature of my pieces.  This new work, however, is far from organic.
I was going to abandon the project when my son said "why don't you just make it a feature of the work?"  Don't you just love kids!  Sometimes they are so spot on.

Taking my 12 year olds advice, as you do, I decided to go for a matt finish on the pendant and a high polish for the image.  Given I don't have the tools to get into the small crevices I decided to oxidise the pendant which will, hopefully, hide a multitude of sins!  Besides, if it looks aged, the odd dent here and there gives it more character.  I'm not finished yet but I'm already glad I didn't melt it down for scrap.  All this because my son could see the obvious solution, where I was looking at imperfections!  Yet another steep learning curve.