Laser Cut Surface Design

 I was so excited to finish this project! When I was in middle and highschool I would go to anime/comic cons and check out the artist alleys. I remember the two coolest pieces of merch that I got at these cons was necklaces that had laser cut pendants. This was a while ago so it was really just plastic with an image printed on it and then cut around. Then as I got older I started following artists online who would use laser cutting and acrylic to create incredibly bright and intricate pieces that caught my incredibly over the top heart. in the last year I've seen more and more artists creating gorgeous jewelry pieces with the engraving features that the laser cutter provides so getting to do a project based on that was a dream and getting it cut was something I was really looking foreword to. 

To get my design ready to print I had to figure out how I wanted the outside edge to be done. Originally I had provided a border around the design but after talking to Brian I decieded to see what it would look like with a more customized edge. I offset as many of the edges as I could and then went in with the control point tool to fill in where the edges didn't quite connect. It was a lot of work but I ended up really liking how it turned out! I then converted the file into greyscale and I only noticed now that I mixed up making my purple darker then my green (which spoiler ended up looking great anyways). 

I then brought my design to the laser cutter and Jessica helped me to convert it and print the design. Fortunately, I hadn't missed any steps so we didn't have any trouble with getting it cut. 

This is the final product, I'm so happy with how emotive the faces ended up looking and how the minimal difference of tones meant that none of the details got lost in the work! I'm so excited to take what I've learned from this project and translate it to more work (hopefully with acrylic) in the future!!