The first thing I did when deciding on the project was to decide whether I wanted to make a shamrock into a set of earrings, a brooch, a necklace, or a hat patch. Since I have a hat patch coming in another design, I figured I'd hold off on that and opted for the necklace.

I normally would come up with a design inside of Inkscape, Photoshop, or within XCS itself and just run with it; however, this time, I opted to utilize AI to put my ideas into an image. It did a fair job presenting the idea that I had, given the instructions I gave it.

Once I had a suitable result that fit the image in my head, I set about manually tracing the image (none of the image tracing would work, given the intricacy of the background, and putting it through a background removal tool would be an extra step… I'm about doing it right the first time and just being done with it).

Next, I set an outline of zero to create a cut line. I like to set my cut lines to red or black, depending on the design. It just makes it easier to see.

When doing the work in Inkscape (this was before the xArt open beta, so I couldn't share screenshots of me using the new pen tool), I created the general shapes for the clover and the unique shape that the AI created for the central pieces, as well as the heart, and then I duplicated them and placed them in their respective places.

The AI created a perspective on the design, which I had to remove for the design here.

I then made a duplicate of the accent shape paths and brought them into Photoshop, though you could just as well do this in any raster image editor.

Once inside the application, I created a gradient of the center section using a Gaussian blur, adjusting it to be just on the outside edge of the outline (I'll explain why later).

Once I am happy with the gradient blur, and satisfied that it will create a “dish” effect inside of the shapes, I export it as a png file to take back to XCS.

Once you have the relief imported into XCS, you'll create a duplicate of the accent shapes and align the relief and the score lines. You'll then set up an clip mask on the relief. This is why you want the gradient to be just on the outside of the lines.

This will cause the gradient to start steep on the edge of the score and have a dish shape instead of a dip shape. If you want it more gradual, make the color gradient more gray. If you want it more steep, make the gradient less gradual between black to transparent. Just remember: The more black, the closer it's going to get to the percentage value you are setting. This will be explained more in depth in a coming project, but I hope you get the idea.

I decided that if I were going to make a necklace, that I were going to make it look nice. I prefer the stuff that I make to look natural, so I wanted to create something that wasn't coated in a plastic sheen of resolene or laquer. As such, I was going to sand it down by hand, then stain it. I wanted it to have the dark recesses, like the generated photo, so I had to make that happen.

The way I made that happen was that I took some leather dye and stained down into the accents. I could have just dripped it down in there, and you could use wood stain if you wanted to. I prefer the leather dye as it is more natural than the wood stains I have, and I didn't want the inside of my house smelling like the garage.

So I stained the front of the pendant (don't do this… just stain the accents. It'll save you a lot of extra sanding). Use a paint brush and drip a little drop of paint into the center and let it wick up the sides. You can fill the dished areas like a bowl if you need to, then let it soak down in. It may seep out into the cracks a bit, but you'll get a neat effect, I think.

Then sand the edges. It should be soft to the touch. Smooth without an edge to catch on your clothes or your hands.

I wanted to stain the final piece, so that's what I did. I wanted to see what it would look like, so I tested it out beforehand. Make sure to click on the image to see the before, the test (which is what you see above), and then a fun test if I were to use green. 

I did this because I prefer the stained look in this use case, though if I started with a piece of solid wood that I liked, I would probably leave it be and just oil and then put some finish on it.

A coat of matte wood finish would be fine. You'll want to use some care putting a split ring on this as you may split the wood hoop, so I suggest a custom wire hanger be twisted up for it.

I hope you enjoy.