Dimension drawing of the small portrait in natural oiled: 240 mm high, 180 mm wide, 24 mm deep

Custom 3D Wood Portrait from Your Photo, Solid Ash

Small: 240 × 180 × 24 mm / Natural, oiled / None
£127.00
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Dimension drawing of the small portrait in natural oiled: 240 mm high, 180 mm wide, 24 mm deep
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  • Dimension drawing of the small portrait in natural oiled: 240 mm high, 180 mm wide, 24 mm deep
  • Carved oval wood portrait in the walnut and gold-silver patina finish, hanging on a pale wall
  • How it works: your photograph, the 3D render you approve, and the finished portrait in all three finishes
  • The portrait hung on a dark blue wall above a floating shelf with a plant and a candle
  • Carved oval wood portrait in the natural oiled finish, the ash grain running through the face
  • The natural oiled portrait seen straight on, showing the raised oval border
  • The natural oiled portrait at an angle, showing the depth of the relief
  • Carved oval wood portrait in the walnut oiled finish, the relief read by shadow alone
  • The walnut oiled portrait seen straight on against a pale wall
  • The walnut oiled portrait at an angle, showing how the stain darkens the whole panel
  • The patinated portrait at an angle, the metallic finish catching light on the raised surfaces
  • Close view of the patinated finish, showing the metal rubbed back over the carved face
  • The patinated portrait seen straight on, gold and silver over dark stained ash
Custom 3D Wood Portrait from Your Photo, Solid Ash

Custom 3D Wood Portrait from Your Photo, Solid Ash

£127.00
JPEG or PNG only, at least 1500 px on the short side, under 20 MB. Face towards the camera, even light, no heavy shadow across half the face, no filters. iPhone users: your photos may be saved as HEIC. Open the photo, tap Share and choose a format we can read, or email it to yourself first — that converts it.
Please upload a JPEG or PNG photograph, under 20 MB.
A different angle helps us judge depth. Not required. JPEG or PNG.
This file is not a JPEG or PNG, or it is over 20 MB.
For example: my father, aged 70 / our daughter, 4 years old.
Please tell us who is in the photograph.
Glasses, a hat, the background, a second person standing in the frame. Anything you want changed.
Please choose whether you want a wall hanger.
Please confirm before adding to cart.

Send us a photograph and we carve it into solid ash as a relief portrait. Not a print, not an engraving on a flat surface — an actual three-dimensional face, cut into the wood, with the light doing what light does on a face.

Oval format, two sizes, three finishes. The oval sits inside a raised border cut from the same panel, so nothing is applied or glued on.

The three finishes are three different objects. Natural, oiled keeps the pale ash and lets the grain run through the face — the quietest of the three, and the one that reads most like wood. Walnut, oiled stains the whole panel dark; the relief then depends entirely on shadow, which makes it stronger in raking light and flatter in dull light. Walnut with gold and silver patina is the most worked of the three: the panel is stained dark, then a metallic patina is laid over the raised surfaces and rubbed back, so the highlights of the face catch light on their own instead of waiting for it. It reads at any hour and from across a room, and it is the one that stops looking like wood.

How it works. You order and upload your photograph. We check it within two working days and tell you honestly whether it will carve well. If it will, we build the 3D model and send you a render to approve before anything is cut. One round of changes is included. Once you approve it, we machine the panel, sand and finish it by hand, and ship within 5–10 working days.

The 5–10 days run from your approval of the render, not from the order. How long the first part takes is up to how quickly you reply.

If the photograph will not give a good relief, we ask for another. If there isn't another, we refund you in full and cancel the order. A portrait carved from a bad photograph looks like someone else, and neither of us wants that on a wall.

Made in our workshop in Romania.
Product details

A relief portrait carved into solid ash from a photograph you send us. Oval format, two sizes, three finishes. Made individually to your order — no two are alike, because no two faces are.

The three finishes: Natural oiled, pale ash with the grain running through the face. Walnut oiled, the whole panel stained dark, relief read by shadow alone. Walnut with gold and silver patina, where a metallic finish is laid over the raised surfaces and rubbed back so the highlights carry their own light. The photographs show all three on the same portrait.

What you fill in at checkout: the photograph itself, a line about who is in it, what you want kept or left out — glasses, a hat, the background, a second person standing in the frame — and whether you want a wall hanger fitted. If you choose the engraved option, the text for the back as well.

Timing: we check the photograph within two working days and send a render of the 3D model for you to approve. One round of changes is included. Once approved, the portrait is machined, finished and dispatched within 5–10 working days. The clock on those days starts at your approval, not at the order.
Dimensions and specifications
  • Wood: solid ash, one panel, no glued joints
  • Small: 240 × 180 × 24 mm (9.4″ × 7.1″ × 0.9″) — about 1.5 kg
  • Large: 320 × 240 × 32 mm (12.6″ × 9.4″ × 1.3″) — about 2.5 kg
  • Format: oval, inside a raised border cut from the same panel
  • Finishes: Natural oiled; Walnut oiled; Walnut with gold and silver patina
  • Tolerance: ±1 mm
  • Subject: one face per panel
  • Back engraving: optional, up to 200 characters
  • Wall hanger: fitted on request, at no extra cost — chosen at checkout
  • Photograph: JPEG or PNG, at least 1500 px on the short side, under 20 MB
  • Photograph checked within 2 working days
  • Revisions to the 3D render: one included
  • Dispatch: 5–10 working days from your approval of the render
  • Sold individually
Mounting

A relief portrait can hang or stand. Choose the wall hanger at checkout and we recess a keyhole plate into the back before finishing; without it the back is left flat, for a panel that will sit on a shelf or a mantelpiece.

  1. Hang it at eye level or a little below. Unlike an icon, a portrait is meant to be met, not looked up to — and the relief reads best when the light crosses the face from the side rather than from directly above.
  2. Use a fixing rated for the weight of the size you ordered — 1.5 kg for the small, 2.5 kg for the large — and for your wall type.
  3. Leave the screw head standing 4–5 mm proud of the wall and hook the plate over it.
  4. Test the position before you drill: hold the panel against the wall and move a lamp across it. A face that reads well in one light can flatten completely in another, and the wall you choose matters more here than with any other piece we make. The two oiled finishes are the most sensitive to this; the patinated one is the most forgiving, because the metallic highlights carry light of their own.

Do not use adhesive strips. Keep the panel away from a radiator or a wall that gets direct afternoon sun.
Materials & workshop

Solid ash, one panel per portrait. Ash is pale and open-pored, and on a face that matters more than on anything else we make: the grain runs through the cheek and the forehead and becomes part of the likeness. It is why we photograph every finished portrait before it ships — the same face on two boards is not quite the same object.

Made in our workshop in Roman, Romania. The photograph is turned into a three-dimensional model by hand — a photograph has no depth information, so every millimetre of relief is a decision someone makes about how far the nose stands out from the cheek, how deep the eye socket goes, where the jaw ends. That modelling is the work; the machining is what comes after it.

Sanding and finishing are done by hand. On a face, sanding is not a finishing step but a continuation of the modelling — it is where an expression settles. On the patinated version the metallic layer goes on after the stain and is rubbed back until only the raised surfaces hold it, then sealed; it is applied by hand, so two portraits are close but never identical.
Care

Dust with a dry, soft brush rather than a cloth. A face has undercuts around the nose, the lips and the hair, and a cloth catches on them and leaves fibres behind. Never use water or a household cleaner.

The patina is sealed and will not come off with normal dusting. It is still a surface finish, so keep abrasives and solvents away from it.

Ash lightens rather than darkens under strong light, and it does so unevenly on a surface with this much relief — the raised parts of the face change faster than the hollows. Keep the portrait out of direct sun and it will stay as it left the workshop.

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