It looks pretty sacrilegious, but it's still good looking in a macabre way

May 13, 2014 13:36 GMT  ·  By

Being exposed to all facets of contemporary culture, from dry novels to shonen manga, one might not bat an eye when seeing odd decorations of age-old motifs, but some things are bound to draw attention, like this cross.

A certain designer/artist going by the name of Andrew Jerez has formally revealed a 3D printed cross that is unlike other crosses.

For one thing, it's huge. As in, the central gem, which is not really a gem, is as big as a human head, as the photos will show you. Indeed, the entire cross is larger than a normal human's upper body.

It's pretty obvious that the cross is too large for anything that comes out of a 3D printer. Yet it supposedly is fully 3D printed.

It’s all thanks to segmentation. The thing was made in pieces, then put together until it looked like something from a movie about necromancers. Those skulls on the horizontal slab and the top of the cross pretty much gave the theme away.

The size isn't as amazing as the fact that it almost looks like it's made of metal though. Normally, 3D printers construct items from plastic, or grow them from resin of some sort.

That holds true in this case, but Jerez was able to make it look like something welded together out of graveyard fence beams. With human skulls for extra kick.

An Ultimaker 2 3D printer did all the work, and Andrew Jerez doubts it would have been possible to make the thing using any other technology.

That point of view probably won't be shared by anyone who has ever seen more complicated things put on sale by smiths and craftsmen. The cross is not exactly lined with tiny runes or anything too small for normal tools to do.

It's true that it would have been hard to make a mould that would shape plastic as a cross like this, especially in multiple colors.

However, there should definitely be ways of manufacturing a metal cross like this one via old-fashioned techniques. There are sword hilts with more detail after all, and they predate electricity, let alone 3D printers.

Anyway, the cross will probably catch the eye of the Goth or rock-loving teenage and young adult crowds. And the Cross of Unholiness (Unholy Cross is the actual name) is pretty detailed and authentic looking.

Just the sort of thing in whose vicinity you might actually feel comfortable cackling evilly. Not that big a surprise, given the guy's experience in making visual models and props for Aflac, Puma, IBM and Nine Inch Nails.