Work in progress of 3D Chinese cursive character (Hanzi) Li3 (inside, short distance [about 500 m]) in marble ("botticino")

A more language-oriented version (work in progress)

LARGE IMAGE:
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs29/i/2008/056/a/a/LI3_GRAD_by_rosros_3.png

What do you think microUgly?

I seen this post but didn't make a comment because the symbols don't mean anything to me so it didn't feel right to comment But I like the raised effect. If you're going for a carved stone effect I would make the shadow and hilights sharper. I would also change the blend mode of the highlight so to something that increases the brightness of the marble rather than makes it white.

The meaning of the words:
Top: Optics
Bottom left: Curves
Bottom right:
The small ones: kaishu (regular script), a form of Chinese calligraphy.
The large one has many meanings: boundary, territory, realm, side, etc.

As for my comment: it's really too abstract for me. I don't see how you derived that symbol from the character. Over-all, the symbol is a bit too plain, but the shading is nice.

Thank you for checking the meaning of the words (they are intended as descriptive labels).
I selected the character (on bottom left of the marble version) from the tables of "Read About China in Cursive Script by Chang Yi-nan "
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/pzlabs/sets/709578/), I then produced a curved version made of a single line (the white line); for the 3D version I joined the (two) end nodes with a (curved) segment and filled it (the choice of what to fill is left to Inkscape ... ), to enhance it in a 3D view I also shrinked it a bit. Since cursive versions of hanzi have been also a base for the current (GB) simplification (haven't they?) the "plain" look is intended. The curved version of the hanzi is an idea for a font. What do you think?

Thanks microugly! Here are two versions:
________________ROUNDED_____________VS._____________SEMIFLAT______________

Respective large images:
http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs29/f/2008/058/e/3/LI3_marble_rounded_by_rosros_3.png
http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs28/f/2008/058/5/6/568f04c54fa2e042.png

Very effective. I think the shadow could be a litle lighter on the semiflat one. I really like the effect on the smaller text.