Tag Archives: laser cut

Arts in Worship: Crosses

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve had a few problems with my laser cutter over the last six weeks or so… One of the cables was causing intermittent faults. The presumption was that after four years of use, it was gradually fracturing. I managed to keep the machine limping on until I replaced the cable this week. As a result, I’ve had to feed projects into the machine through a slot so that the lid was barely lifted – an interesting exercise.

It would have been fine if I had not been asked to do several projects in those weeks. A small group craft session for church folk, the ‘Be Still’ evening and a large group craft session for my church’s retired men’s group. All of these needed kitting out with laser-cut items.

The projects

Here are the projects I designed and crafted for the small group and the men’s group. They feature crosses for the Easter season. Both are available as workshops at the Studio for groups of up to eight people. To book, just get in contact with me.

Easter crosses laser-cut from eucalyptus plywood
Easter cross made with wood stirrers
Continue reading →

Arts in Worship: Be Still

Posted on by
Reply

I was asked to run a craft table at a recent ‘Be Still’ community event at my church. The aim of the evening was to take the chance for attendees to have some ‘me’ time with massages, facials, mindfulness sessions as well as the craft table. I looked for all sorts of inspiration and didn’t really find any. I then stumbled on some photos of retro signage and decided to go with the theme. I created six different laser-cut wood signs, each with a typical self-affirming phrase often linked to mindfulness sessions. For each, I spent a long time finding a relevant Bible verse or passage to move it from self-centred to God-centred.

Be stil event affirmation signs

Continue reading →

Laser cut: Pewter moulds

Posted on by
2
My studio has amassed kit for just about every hobby over the years (except knitting). I was looking for lollipop sticks and came across my pewter moulding kit that I’ve had for ages but never properly used… Turns out you can use your laser cutter to make wooden moulds:
 
pewter pendant and mould
Continue reading →

Laser-cut: Five tealight holders

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been playing on my Glowforge laser cutter during the lockdown and experimenting with designing tealight holders. The first, tall one, took inspiration from one I came across on Pinterest. Once I had all the settings dialled in for the circular design, I came up with the next two designs. One features mirror acrylic and is a little bit out there, but I hope the internal reflections will make it zing. After that came the next two faceted rounds using various repeating seamless patterns to fill the facets. All are made from 3mm birch plywood, treated with flame retardant and are available to purchase for £5 each (p&p extra).

Lasercut: Memory Book

Posted on by
Reply

Ever start on a project and get disillusioned halfway through? This is one such project… I got hold of an outline file for a laser-cut 3D ‘book’ box and thought it would be ideal for a memory book. I spent all morning tweaking the sizes of all the holes, working through several sheets of MDF before I was more sensible and started cutting just a couple of joints at a time as tests. They’re still not quite dialled in correctly, but at least it went together for this prototype.

Continue reading →

Laser Cut: 3D Mandalas Part II

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve had a couple more goes at layering 3D mandalas. Making the layers sometimes causes some head scratching, but as I have been used to editing layers in other design work, it’s not all bad. The first two are based on my hand drawn mandalas, and the second is based on a photo of a real snowflake.

3D mandalas - 1

 

 

3D mandalas - snowflake

Laser cut: 3D Mandalas

Posted on by
3

If you care to remember, I have been drawing mandalas from scratch. I’ve also been expanding my skill set designing and cutting on my Glowforge laser cutter. I’ve seen several 3D mandalas online where the design has been cut from layers of wood, with variable complexity and some true artists whose work must have taken days, if not weeks, to do.

My first attempt at a layered mandala, using 1.5mm thick birch ply:

Continue reading →

Laser Cut: Christmas 2019

Posted on by
Reply

I know, it’s the C-word again, but in the crafting world, Christmas is in July. I think it is so that all the kit can be bought, put somewhere safe, searched for and then, in a final frantic rush, used. In my case, it’s because I have an idea or find inspiration that I have to do something with. It also helps that I am well prepared for a table at a local craft fair at the beginning of November.

This week’s offerings summarise a few hours work over the last month or so, featuring original artwork inspired by Pinterest browsing or from my own creativity.

Continue reading →

Laser cut: Engraved wooden tree decoration

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve had a bit of a creative funk recently – I had little direction to work in and consequently, things have been a little quiet in the Studio. That changed this week with my application for a large local Christmas Fayre being successful. I know, I know, it’s only April and I’ve started on Christmas prep – but that’s how competitive getting a table was since the invites came out in March.

So, the laser cutter has been blazing away with a couple of new designs. The first uses a disc designed to be a wooden earring. At 5cm diameter, it seems to be a little large for that, but I thought it would complement my other wooden tree decorations. A quick bit of design and hanging an amethyst coloured heart bead created this:

The trickiest part is hanging the heart. This was originally planned to be a star, but I didn’t have any suitable beads to hand – I think the heart works just as well.