The project began with this 3D scan, published with a public domain license on Thingiverse by Pieter Bos (his first upload!)

In Pieter's photo here, you can see the original and a 3D print of his model.

I used it as a test model on my Makerbot, as a way to tweak the printer's settings and to try out new paints and coatings.

Later, I began to play with the model using the open source 3D program Blender.

I started to combine multiple copies of the Buddha model with simple shapes, using boolean operations.

A "boolean operation" can take an object and add ("union"), subtract ("difference"), or intersect with another object. Here you can see how it works in two dimensions.

After the model is finished, it gets printed on the Makerbot. The Makerbot builds the model one thin layer at a time by extruding melted plastic. This shot shows a print about halfway complete.

The last step is taping and painting.

The final result.