3D Printed Oreo Cookie Cameos: Artist Hand-Sculpts Creme, Scans and 3D Prints Replicas

Several factors go into creating great works of art. First you need a good artist, then that artist needs to form an idea. Originality is key for artists looking to establishing themselves among the elite. Those who go down in history are usually the ones who can come up with an idea never seen before within the field. They often combine multiple art techniques and perhaps multiple technologies to come with masterpieces unlike no other.

One artist, named Judith Klausner, has done just this. She has come up with a rather original idea of sculpting Oreo cookies into cameos which look quite incredible, to say the least. She doesn’t stop here though. She takes it one step further, and utilizes 3D technology to take this art and make it available to the masses.

“As a sculptor trying to navigate the world of making a living from my art, one of the issues I run into is the challenge of scaling work for a wide range of budgets,” Klausner tells 3DPrint.com. “Painters, drawers, and other 2D folk have long had the versatile option of offering prints—machine-captured and produced copies of original work—that allow for selling work more affordably without undercutting the value of the original pieces. Until very recently, this was not an option available to 3D artists. Unless you produced work that could be cast, there was no way to produce multiples of a piece without all of the labor of the original, and even then it couldn’t be done by a machine except on a very large scale. New technologies are changing this, offering opportunities for sculptors to expand into the world of prints. It is exciting to explore the possibilities that are developing as our ability to reproduce 3-dimensional objects digitally improves at an amazing pace.”

Original sculpted Oreo Cameo (left), 3D printed replica (right)

This technology that Klausner refers to is 3D scanning and 3D printing. She takes ordinary Oreo cookies, then precisely sculpts various cameos into the creme filling. For anyone that has eaten an Oreo cookie before, surely you have opened one up, and played around with the filling a bit. As you know, this stuff can be extremely brittle. Somehow Klausner has mastered the art of sculpting this brittle, yet extremely tasty creme, using a combination of toothpicks, pins, and a sculpture tool that is “basically a tiny ball on a stick.”

3D printed by Shapeways

Klausner has sclupted a rather large collection of these cookies, which are part of an art collection called “From Scratch.” They have been featured in museums, galleries, and publications around the world.

“I am deeply invested in the dialogue between technology and art, and the symbiosis that can be found there,” Klausner tells us. “I am very pleased to be able to offer my first ever limited-edition batch of 3D prints. The Oreo Cameo pieces from my series “From Scratch,” in addition to being my most popular work to date, lend themselves incredibly well to the 3D printing process. The pieces have been captured in minute detail by 3D laser scan (I worked with a fantastic small company in the Boston area called 3D Printsmith) and 3D printed in a combination of color sandstone and detail plastic (then hand-assembled). The color sandstone really captures the crumb of the cookie, while the detail plastic has just the right translucency. Only 150 prints will be made of each Cameo, which comes with a stand and hand-numbered certificate. Additionally, the two Greco-Roman style cameos are available in coin-like steel prints in editions of 75.”

All stainless-steel version

For the 3D printing of the cookies, Klausner uses Shapeways. The cookie part of the prints are printed in Shapeways’ ‘full color sandstone,’ and she tells us that they have a remarkably similar texture to that of the original cookies. The sculpted creme part is printed in the company’s ‘white detail plastic,’ and then the two are hand assembled by Klausner herself.

Klausner sells these limited edition 3D printed Oreo Cameos for $85, while the all-stainless-steel versions are priced at $195.

This goes to show just how incredibly detailed today’s 3D scanners and printers can be. Comparing the the original sculptures with the 3D printed replicas is quite extraordinary. They look almost identical, with the exception of the more yellowed tint that the original, slightly stale creme filling has to it. Klausner is certainly taking part in some groundbreaking art, and may just be one of those artists who go down in history for doing so.

What do you think? Have you purchased one of Klausner’s limited edition 3D printed Oreo Cameos? Discuss in the 3D Printed Oreo Cameo forum thread on 3DPB.com.