Craig Cropek Studios

07/21/2026

I decided to use my resin printer again yesterday for the third time but with a new exotic and viscous resin - not exactly the best resin for a beginner, bahaha. So far my only successful print was a set of thin calibration tests for the first resin test. Sometimes learning looks like a headache you fight through and success looks like many lost battles that were persevered through till the victory.

07/16/2026

Meet the newest member to my maker arsenal for invention, product design, and potentially art - a plastic injection molder.

06/16/2026

A customer of mine recently brought to me an heirloom he had in his family for hundreds of years that he was hoping to have restored, or better protected against damage while being displayed. The small brass cross with a wood inlay was broken in two so either needed attached back together by a professional art conservator, or displayed in a way that offered some protection while offering easy future removal by a conservator.

For the display method, he provided me with the larger oak cross for milling. I reccommended milling a pocket that offered a friction fit, but with some clearance on the ends, and through holes behind the heirloom to allow for easy removal for any future repairs by a conservator, as it is best to let an art conservator do any repairs or choose archival fixatives specific to each piece. I also added a way to hang the piece which helped to balance the piece visually. I had a great time helping this customer with this fun challenge he entrusted to me.

A side note, but the customer polished this piece after he recieved the larger cross with the milled pocket because he wanted it to match better and really pop. Generally it is better to let conservators polish antiques but I belive he helped bring new life to it with its historical family heritage journey and love the final result. I find it so poetic that this piece has been reminding his family of Christ and Christ's sacrifice for ~300-500 years of being passed down from generation to generation and how he added to its history in this beautiful way.

06/02/2026

I have been playing around with potential manufacturing techniques for product ideas tonight. I hope to launch something customizable soon! More info coming soon!

06/02/2026

05/29/2026

I am one step closer to using my resin printer.. Here is me making a plexiglass adapter plate for my resin printer.

05/11/2026

Update on behind the scenes of my business: I milled purple heart wood on my cnc, an exotic and very dense wood that is harder to sculpt. The first attempt was an absolute failure with the learning experiences an absolute success though, haha. The second time, however was a great partial success and I learned how to speed up the process without destroying my tool bits. The software limited the results on the second attempt, though still phenomenal. I have since updated the software after discussing the issue with technical support. This sculpture is from a sculpture I sculpted in oil clay called "Penelope". Fun side story, I originally wanted to have a hand for it holding a pastry and call the piece, "Pastry Penelope". I hope I can one day do commissions and be able to resin print or mill in exotic wood for clients.

As of the enclosure, I built it for removing fumes from my mills vacuum/filtration system, I learned that milling in acrylic sheet may be very profitable. As of the laser engraving, not so profitable. A mixture of my computer, software, and engraving time with the laser engraver limits the profitability for large workpieces. This was a real bummer, haha.

I often get asked how long it takes to complete certain art projects. If this interests you, there are rough estimates below.

The purple heart milled "Penelope" sculpture took about 15 to 20 hours to make: a few hours making the profiles for the 4th axis cnc (mostly waiting time for gcode files to be cashed in the computer), ~10 hours to mill all the different roughing and finishing profiles, and a few hours sanding it by hand (need to eventually find the best protective coating finish for it). The time to sculpt the original oil clay piece, 3D scan it, and smooth it in blender software probably adds another 25 hours to it.