Dedicated Laser Cutter

Just completed a one day course to become a dedicated user of the laser cutters at the University of the West of England. I wanted to do the course partly to gain an understanding and knowledge of the laser cutter software (Ethos) and this would allow me to book in for longer session too with more availability.

To pass the course I had to produce both a raster and vector engrave. I produce the above engrave of Battersea Power Station, on to Somerset Satin 300g, which took approximately 40 minutes.

I used my After Deco design from the mini-print exhibition as a starting point to explore the generation of scan lines to engrave the surface alongside cutting through. I used a piece of 3mm plywood as this design lended itself to a material other than paper. (The limitations of the folded pieces I have been producing is that it limits materials choice.) I used the same direction of engraved lines but altered the distance between them (called the pitch) so that some areas appear solid engrave.

I glued some sections of the cut outs back onto the surface to alter and expand the silhouette.