Oamaru Stone is at the cutting edge of art and architecture
Nature never fails to provide creative inspiration. That’s why Oamaru Stone is an exciting medium for everything from historic buildings, artwork and furniture to cutting-edge architecture. It’s a versatile material that can be formed into virtually anything. With our new 3D scanning technology and CNC shaping, the only limit to what you can create with Oamaru Stone is your imagination.
Glass, steel and Oamaru Stone
Creativity involves combining familiar things in new and unexpected ways to stimulate the senses in ways that haven’t been experienced before. Architecture is one of the most profound ways society as a whole can experience creativity, as it can stimulate our senses of sight, touch, sound, and even smell – and potentially taste as well – all at once.
That explains the rapidly rising popularity of Oamaru Stone as an architectural construction material. Throughout New Zealand, leading architects and designers have recognised that Oamaru Stone looks great when combined with a vast range of other materials. In particular, it provides a brilliant foil to modern materials like large-format glass, mass timber, and exposed steel.
There is a range of exciting ,creative projects that we’ve been involved in that are coming on stream over the coming months, including residential architecture, artworks, and restorations.
3D scanning and CNC shaping. This is the cutting edge of Oamaru Stone
Just because we produce a traditional material doesn’t mean we have to be traditional in how we use it.
We’ve recently made significant investments in some new technology that allows us to help our clients realise the extraordinary potential locked into every block of Oamaru Stone.
3D Scanning
Our new scanner works by rapidly shooting a beam of light at an object thousands of times to create an exact, precisely-textured, high-resolution model in 3D. We can then output this model in a variety of 3D file types. The scanner is mobile, although it performs at its best under certain controlled conditions. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch with us.
CNC Shaping
We wrote about our awesome CNC stone shaping technology in a recent blog. We’re the only people in New Zealand to use CNC to shape stone. We can create incredibly intricate shapes and textures using this machine, notably to recreate parts of valuable artefacts in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and as part of the restoration of the Christchurch Cathedral. The Cathedral project involved both 3D scanning and CNC shaping to repair a damaged section of the building.
Furniture and artworks
We can see our 3D scanner and our CNC shaper as fantastic creative tools for artists and furniture designers, as well as architects who want to create unique buildings. The scale you can work with is impressive and the results are stunning. We can even start small and end up big. For example, you can give us a small object and we can scan it and blow it up using the CNC shaper to create a large-scale artwork.
Imagine the possibilities! Give us a call today on 03 433 1134 or email sales@oamarustone.co.nz.