Sailing the sea of #sketchbookwoes, I found myself spending a lot of time in the laser room with Sue Turton. After a basic intro into what the laser may be capable of, I was fascinated by what I could do, not just through cutting but using a low powered laser to engrave or etch on the surface of the material.
Laser flat bed cutter
laser flat bed cutter is much more powerful than the Grafixscan
Laser engrave on tracing paper is one of my favourite effects
Laser engrave onto tracing paper using the grafixscan
The laser cutter in action
Laser engrave test on papyrus
Laser engrave on silk is very pretty but severely weakens the fabric
Layers of laser cut paper and card
Laser cut lace design on tracing paper gave translucency but cast very strong shadows when lit
Laser cut on black core card. The design was based on a small section of a design found in the lace archive at NTU
Laser cut onto polypropylene, had to use the flat bed for this, as the grafixscan was not powerful enough. Made a pleasingly rounded engrave though, as the PP melts slightly
Lights on -laser cut (printed) tracing paper and lace behind the engraved PP
Lights off-laser cut (printed) tracing paper and lace behind the engraved PP
Close up -laser cut (printed) tracing paper and lace behind the engraved PP
Laser cut paper, this sample was very fragile because the paper is too soft but made a very pleasing shape when suspended
Laser cut paper
Laser cut paper hanging 3D
Laser engrave samples on plywood as samples for the final box (pre-lockdown)
(and of course on one of my favourites, tracing paper)
Laser engrave samples on plywood as samples for the final box (pre-lockdown)
(and of course on one of my favourites, tracing paper)
Laser enrgave design for the lacelightbox June 2020
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The university has a number of flatbed lasers for cutting but one large Grafixscan machine which can be used to engrave all kinds of materials. the construction of the machine meant the base material did not have to be totally flat or thin, and the Grafixscan was super fast, producing engraved samples in minutes or even seconds.
Laser engrave onto tracing paper using the grafixscan
It could engrave areas from a jpeg or (which I preferred) lines of less that a millimetre from a vector file. These lines to me were as the bobbin thread in a lace machine, fine as hair. I imagined ways of using this to engrave a ‘net’ ground on which to embroider. As it happened I didn’t go down this line, but at least it gave me an avenue to investigate while I got my sketch on.
