How do I make a hand-carved style recess that follows the outline of my 3D model?

The idea

Instead of a round or oval dish, the recess is built from the model's own silhouette, pushed outward a little, then roughed up with the sculpting tools so it looks cut by hand. The official carved recess tutorial follows the order below. It demonstrates the amounts on screen only, so offsets and depths are not quoted here. Set them by eye for your design and material thickness.

Steps

1. Import the 3D component and place it.
2. Add a Zero Plane. Hold Shift and click the Create Shape Plane icon, or use Model, Create Component, Add Zero Plane. This makes a component the size of the job with a height of zero (see the entry on the Zero Plane for why recessed designs need it). Keep it at the bottom of the Component Tree.
3. Create Vector Boundary From Selected Components with the model selected. This traces its silhouette.
4. Offset Vectors outward from that boundary. The offset distance is the width of the hollow around the model.
5. Create Shape, Smooth on the offset vector to form the recess. A recess removes height, so set the combine mode to Subtract. The manual describes Subtract as the way to make recessed shapes (its lioness example uses Create Shape with Subtract), but the tutorial's own combine setting is not published, so check the result in the 3D View. The Smooth profile makes an S-shaped curve at the top and bottom of the shape, which can read as a scooped hollow.
6. Order the tree: zero plane, then the recess, then the model above it.
7. Optional hand-carved effect. The tutorial has a chapter on sculpting a hand-carved effect, but its brush choices are not published. As a suggestion to test on a copy of the job (not from the tutorial): select the recess component, open Sculpting, and try Remove, Deposit or Smudge at low Strength to leave shallow gouge-like marks. Preserve Transparency is checked by default and keeps the outer edge clean.
8. Trace an outline around the dish to use as the vector for cutting the piece out or for limiting the 3D toolpaths.

Pro tips

• Check that the top of the model does not rise above the rim of the recess. If it does, lower its Shape Height, or see the entry on fading a model into a dish with the Multiply combine mode.
• Click Keep during sculpting whenever the texture looks right, so Discard only removes your latest strokes.