Medal with photographic engraving of a face

It is customary to offer a medal during baptisms, whether religious or civil. However, the medal is a jewel that can take on infinite styles.

Most often it is gold, but it can also be silver, as is the case with this personalized medal based on a photo.

This is a medal featuring an Ancient Greek face engraved in relief from a photo of an ancient Ancient Greek face sculpture.

Another feature of this silver medal is that it has a diameter of 25 millimeters.

Please note that this is not the first Greek-inspired jewelry we have had the opportunity to create in our jewelry workshop; in this article you will find a quick presentation of our Greek jewelry creations.

Silver medal with Greek face made by our personalized jewelry creation service

You will notice the details of this project that make it so special, the relief engraving of the face with clearly visible details (mouth, nose, ears and hair).

The design of the medal

For this type of project, the personalization of the medal is usually carried out by flat engraving (using a diamond tip) of a photo while in our case the photo of the face is represented in three dimensions by a relief engraving (sculpture) of the face presented in the photo below.

Unlike classic medals, this unique creation will be a tactile jewel that can be felt and appreciated with the fingers.

Our project begins by taking into account the client’s desired reference design, which is a photo of the sculpted head of a Greek statue.

Greek woman head sculpture to be taken as a model for the creation of our silver medal

To carry out this project we will have used the most powerful IT tools at our disposal, namely 3D digital modeling software.

The sculpting phase of our digital model then begins to reproduce the real sculpture from its photo.

The sculpture using CAD consists in virtually recreating the ancient sculpture presented above in the photo

The head engraved in relief is included in the double-edged medallion, also in relief.

The making of the silver medal

Once the design has been validated by our client, we can proceed with the metal production of the jewellery.

The creation of our work follows, the 3D printing process will allow us to make the work done in digital sculpture tangible.

The computer model will then be printed as a physical resin model.

We then obtain a wax model of our medal, as you see below.

On the wax model we see the details of the eyes, ears and hair curls of the Greek head

We can then produce the silver medal using the lost wax casting process.

The resin master is used to make a mold that will later receive the molten silver. This process is summarized in the images in the following video:

Thus, through this process, we obtain our silver medal, consistent with the wax master and digital modeling.

View of the medal at the end of the casting process, still raw from the foundry

In the case of this jewel we were not satisfied with the bottom of the medal, too rough with the streaks left by the 3D printing (which are only 30 micrometres).

Due to the fact that this hollow area is difficult to access for the ponCDue to age and polishing, we preferred to cut out the dial and then solder it onto another plate of laminated silver which will be prepared separately.

The Greek head cut out from the medal, the background was not of good enough quality

A laminated silver plate is then prepared to ensure a good smooth surface on which the silver Greek head and the surrounding circles will be soldered.

Plate in laminated silver that houses the different parts of the medal

The two outer circles are prepared separately, so that they fit together perfectly with even spacing.

Then they are welded on site.

View of the medal with excess material on the edges before cutting.

The edge of the medal is then trimmed with a saw.

The medal finalized before polishing operations

We will then have to create the deposit which will be welded on site and then carefully polish the jewel.

View of the medal with the head engraved in relief, revealing the hair

Detailed view of the face engraved in relief from the photo showing the details of the nose, mouth and eyes

Different views of the finalized silver medal, mounted on a simple chain

Likewise, here are other examples of jewelry (pendants or medals) that represent relief sculptures of faces, people or animals that show the realism that can be given to a piece of jewelry from a simple photo.

To go further: