Laser Cutting.

Well...

Today I visited the laser cutter. The laser cutter seemed the perfect way to cut out my intricate jewellery designs? Chris and I booked a two hour slot to share, turns out we ran over and didn't get very much done. I feel like I should have known more about what sort of file was needed to cut, I went into it pretty blindly really, which was a bit of a mistake as you can only be allocated 1 hour a day with the laser cutter at a time.

When you open the illustrator files in the laser cutting programme, you realise that lines are doubled up and this takes ages to cut out! The laser cutter instinctively goes over the lines a few times as well to make sure they are defiantly cut through.

I'm pretty sure that my paper actually set on fire a little bit at one point as well!

With the weekend ahead, I knew I needed more cutting slots, so I've booked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well. This weekend I have had to re-design all of my jewellery bits, as I know that the size they are will not be cut. I wanted intricately cut pieces, they are still this, but I have given them more of a silhouette feel.

You can see from my earlier designs, how much I have had to adapt them.

It was interesting to see how differently the laser cutter 'behaves' on different materials also!