^{Hand made Highland crafts also know as Photo statues/photo sculptures and photo ornaments}

The first stage of making a photo ornament is preparing the photo so it can be handled through the various stages. I’ve tried all sorts of mediums from watered down pva, varnishes and lacquers and the best I’ve come up with is a varnish spray that is very fine and almost invisible yet protects the photo from fingerprints and water. it’s called PressIt Sprayfix Print Protection Spray and costs around £10 for a 400ml can.

Once I’ve sealed my photo I fix it onto 2-4 mm mdf using PVA glue (note: mdf can be replaced with acrylic which seems to be the favored material used in the USA). Then using a scroll saw I cut away all the background, in the States they tend to use a laser and computer program to cut the acrylic.

If cutting the ornament out using using a scroll saw the easiest medium to work with is mdf. Hard wood is also good but woods like pine can be awkward when cutting along the grain as the blade/cut tends to follow the grain, and acrylic has a problem of melting when cut with a high speed metal blade.

The next stage involves sanding the edges down and then painting them to match in with the colours of the photo (they don't seem to bother doing this in the States), then finally fixing the ornament to a base. With the base I either make it out of a resin wood filler or hardwood. 

If your planning to make your own ornaments from your photos my advice is to have copies of your photos made prior to starting. Expect to make a few mistakes till you become competent with the scroll saw, which will only take a few days of playing about and experimenting.

I have found the best size ornaments are about 4-6” in height, you don't want them too big as they become a little overpowering and gaudy, so I take most of my cutouts from 5x7 photos.
 

If you don't own your own scroll saw and are wondering what type to go for, well it all comes down to what your budget is. I don't think you need to go all out for the £400 models for this type of craft. Personally I would stick to something in the region of £80—£100, with a dust blower. Blades on the other hand is where you should be choosey. I buy good quality ones over the internet. There are many makes and types of blades available. I normally use “Flying Dutchman” Scroll Reverse blades, size 2/0 or 1 and cant fault them. I  recently purchased some Olson blades (skip tooth and double tooth) just to try them out. They seem ok but I will be sticking tothe f/dutchman as I find the top cut is good but the underneath cut is feathered. The last lot of blades were bought from scrollit.com , its a good site to for getting advice on blades and tips on scroll sawing.

Thats all the tips I have off the top of my head, you can E-mail me for advice/queries if your planning to make your own or just have some Q’s and I’ll help all I can

Happy Scrolling and tight blades

 

All ornaments are made in Scotland, UK. So if your after a 3d photo ornament, hand crafted in the Highlands of Scotland this is the place to come