Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ, and a celebration of peace. This ornament honors this celebration with symbols that invoke passion -- the cross, and the dove of peace.

This Christmas ornament is based on an image from the Holy Cross Lutheran Church.

Step 1: Creating the STL File

To create the STL, I follow the basic idea described on this web page:

http://sites.google.com/site/aboufadelreu/Profile...

with the paper "3D Printing of the JDRF Logo". To be technical, the jpeg of the cross and dove is colored with grayscale, with different scales corresponding to different heights. Using code written for the Mathematica program, the grayscale jpeg is converted into a function of two variables, and then exported as an STL file.

dove-cross-for-contest.stl
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Step 2: Printing the Ornament

Using ReplicatorG, a GCODE file is created from the STL file, after rescaling so that we are close to 3 inches by 3 inches. The ornament pictured was printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2, so an X3G file is created by the GCODE. The Replicator 2 reads the X3G file, which I have attached.