Having the laser cutter installed and working feels like a huge milestone, and I have been celebrating by cutting things. The first thing I did was make some miniature magazine holders to hold the Field Notes notebooks. I love these things, but I had to cut myself off because I was acquiring them much faster than I was using them. Right now they are used for logbooks – keeping track of materials and settings and hours logged on the laser, reminding myself of ways to use QGIS, so I can go back and repeat a process that works (or avoid a process that does not work) and keeping track of my thread inventory, so I don’t get three of a particular blue and completely forget I am out of two different browns. Having the notebooks corralled into Used and Ready to Use means there is counter space for putting other things that need homes.
The second thing I did was test cut a five layer rabbit. There is a designer I found on Thingiverse who makes three layer animals – a center layer that is mostly head and body, and a layer on each side that is legs and ears. The results are evocative. I made a bunch in cardboard for the kids I was sort of teaching in 2022, and tried to get them to design some of their own. And now the same man has a pair of five layer rabbits. So I have a couple of them on the windowsill keeping me company.
The next project was to cut all the parts for ten new tiny boxed coastlines. I was looking at the New England coast trying to find places that looked interesting and that might also be iconic enough that people would recognize them. I settled on a fairly eclectic list, including Provincetown (a characteristic hook) and Monhegan Island (with Manana just beside it) and a couple others. The parts required include pieces for the box, the plexiglass for the ocean, and the cardboard that makes up the land (both over and underwater). The final pieces need to be composed of fabric and then stitched before they can be laser cut.
And finally, to warm up my sewing machine skills, I made an abstract river. I had a vision of birch bark circles originally, but the colors I chose for the river valley do not have enough contrast that birch bark would be visible, so I decided on green silk circles. I have a lot of punches for holes of different sizes; they need sharpening and they have to be hammered into the fabric to cut the circles, but they are useful. I had found the punches, and the hammer, and was in the process of hammering on folded fabric when I remembered – silk is imminently laserable! So I drew up some circles on the computer and sent them off to the laser and within fifteen minutes I had a couple hundred circles in various greens. I was so pleased with myself.
Next week I will get the fabric stitched and cut for the little coastlines, and see how well they work. I have my doubts about a couple, but I won’t know til I try!
Lee Thomson 