Is there a optimal direction for an image to be

The "sanded and filed " areas, do they look look tiny grooves?
That's what I'm getting on certain areas.
Everything before was smooth. Except for some Pine which looked furred.
I can't tell if it's the image, due to my recent problems, or just how the wood cuts.
I'm cutting one of the Oliver Zebras tomorrow.
I noticed they were all in .bmp format. And all 8bit.
I doubt the format matters.

I rotated this 90 to the left, darker eye up.



I'm getting some grooving in the black areas and near hair meets shoulder black, and top left, black. It isn't hair from what I can tell. Still cutting so I'm not sure how much will brush off. I cut her at .375, 10.5 by almost 14.
Pretty nice.
I do notice the white areas, like the nose, sit too much at the surface making the tip look flat as if snipped off.

I was considering Xacto knives or maybe a woodburning tool to add detail.
I haven't gotten to the "this looks nice where am I going to hang it" space yet.
I'm more at the "well that worked out, let me add it to the ever growing pile I need to follow up", stage.
Never really been interested in wood. Never been an artistic type.
We print, I don't she does, a lot of 3d stuff. Don't know what she intends to do with all the vases but I have lots of Butterflies bluetacked to the walls.
This was kind of a lateral move.
Where to take it hasn't quite clicked yet.
I may do some cut throughs and make wooden toys.
Maybe print some colored plastic people or parts for them.

I almost always turn 90* and cut across the grain plusthe speed has a lot to do with it, I make a slow cut and make the laps smaller for a much better finished project.

A little trick I learned with photoVcarve was to take the default step from .100 dow to say .040 or even .020.
You can make the surface look like glass but be prepared to wait 15 hours for a large cut!

How do you work out the price of each?

We considered doing that with the 3d printer. Lots of cool stuff.
If a large print takes 10 hours, but the filament is relatively inexpensive, how would I price that? We could print a hundred small objects, like Butterflies, during that same time.
I have the same problem with the carver, time consuming.

I've known crafts people that make goods all winter, or hit the warm state circuit, then follow the craft shows and flea markets in the summer.
They make a good living.
If we were in a more hipster collegey town we could hit the small consignment and dollar shops. Sell trinkets and baubles and make the profit on volume.
Some place like Portland we could make a killing.
One of the Filament types is made from corn, biodegradable plastic. Hippies and Hipsters would eat those gewgaws right up.

Considered the internet thing, her brother makes websites so no issue establishing a site with payment options. But that seems time consuming all the packaging and shipping and taxes.

We also have a 3d scanner. I push my son to take some CAD/CAM courses in the evenings. Then he could do local work either scanning or creating prototypes or objects people commission.
We are probably the only people with a hundred, hundred and fifty mile radius positioned to do that work.

I also consider setting up some type of training course company and marketing it too local interests. Go to the reservation sell the idea of training kids on 3d printing or carving. Same holds true with any local youth oriented interest. Someone will either offer grant money or donations to expand it if it is popular.

All this home manufacturing is the wave of the US future.
It isn't like the factories in my area will be coming back.

It depends on what the brightest Gamma is. Bright white is surface, bit doesn't touch that.
Black is deepest.
For anything to fall below the surface the color would have to be off white. Grayer than white.
Then again my machine is screwed and could have been cutting incorrectly for quite a while.
I've cut at .375 and .50, always left the corresponding white area as untouched surface. I've watched the z axis raise above the surface, and the bit skim right over.

sorry i have a question for oliverman
what do i do when flash dr. or machine has 48 images.
and how do i do it.