November 4, 2026

Today I would like to introduce one special cross that arrived at the Taiyo no Ie.

This time I designed a cross myself, had it made with a 3D printing service, and even asked for it to be cast in metal.

What started as nothing more than a design on screen went through a casting service in France, became a real three-dimensional cross, and came all the way from France into my hands.

When I opened the box and saw the real thing, I was moved. It is a strange and happy experience to have something you thought up and designed yourself arrive as a real metal object.

The cross is gold all over, with the letters “IHS” set large at the top of the front. IHS is a traditional Christian monogram for Jesus Christ.

From the center down, I placed several fleurs-de-lis, the lily emblem that recalls traditional French ornament. The tips of the four arms also carry decorative details, giving it a presence a little different from an ordinary cross.

Its actual size is about 12 cm.

It is larger than I had imagined, and when you hold it, it has real presence. I originally made it to wear around the neck, but unlike an ordinary pendant it turned out to be quite a large cross.

There was one thing I had not expected in the making, though.

In the original design, each part of the cross was to be pierced, so that you could see through it.

But with the lost-wax casting I ordered, the 3D-printed model could not simply become the finished piece as it was; the casting process had its own limits.

As a result, the pierced structure I had planned was hard to achieve, and in the end it was changed to a structure with a single plate on the back.

In other words, it did not become the fully pierced cross I had first pictured.

That part is a little disappointing, but there are things you only learn by actually going through casting. Shaping with a 3D printer and finishing something in metal by casting each have their own technical conditions.

Even so, looking at the finished cross, I think this is a finished form in its own right.

Above all, the fact that a design I worked out on my computer became real metal and crossed the sea from France is the great result of this project.

In the end, this cross has become one of the crosses I keep.

I am thinking of wearing it day to day, but at about 12 cm, it may also be good to keep it carefully, or to place it somewhere close by.

Put simply, it is something like a keepsake of protection for me.

Of course, I do not mean that the cross itself has some special power. I simply want to keep something with me that lets me feel, at any time, my faith in Christ, my prayers, and the feelings I put into making it.

A cross I designed myself, cast in France, and now in my hands.

Including the parts that turned out differently from the plan, it has become a precious cross of my own.

This was a record of the making, from the Taiyo no Ie.