1. I started with these letters m%3X8çÖ8X3%m   They look like this in CrabbyEdges Font.

1. Select the text tool. 
2. In the Tool Panel, choose CrabbyEdges for the font, and a fairly large font size (I choose 48).
3. Click in the document and press ctrl-v to paste the text (m%3X8çÖ8X3%m).
4. With the text selected, in the Easy Panel, Text/Path Effects, Text Wrap, choose a wrap effect and double click.
5. Right click on the text, choose Wrap, then Properties.  I used text wrap 21 with the following settings.  You'll usually want the spacing to be zero, but play with the count setting to get a shape that you like.

Now it looks like this:

Choose the magic wand tool. 

Click on "select on object" in the attibute toolbar

Search connected pixels is checked

Similarity is 40 or so

Click in a black area.

Menu, edit, trace edges, selection marquee, OK. 

Choose 3D Object in the attributes toolbar

Apply material effects

1. For the frame below, I used text N]è8''8Ü]N , applied text wrap 24, convert text object to path object, used 3d pipe, and applied a preset I downloaded.