Charlie Chang: Week 12 Laser Engraving

Concept

I wanted to make a board with a Swiss cheese plant design. I like the look of the leaves, and the holes within them. 

Monstera Deliciosa aka Swiss cheese plant

I thought the leaves would add a minimalistic touch to the board. Monstera leaves are a little "basic", but their look was perfect for the image I had in my head.

Techniques

I took some pictures off of Google and put them into Illustrator. Then, I used the curve tool to trace along the edges of the leaves. I did not use the pen tool because I felt that it would take too long to perfect the shapes, especially since the curve tool was perfect for the curvature of the leaves themselves. I did three pictures total, and duplicated them so that I could place three on each side of my board. I made holes into one type of the leaves so that there was variety. I then assigned layers to my lines. I ended up making the outer leaf lines the shallow depth, and the holes a deeper depth, which I now believe to be a mistake. I was not 100% pleased with the outcome of my engraving, but due to time and money, I did what I could. 

Illustrator

Materials

The materials used for this were a skateboard deck and the laser engraver. I bought the deck off of Amazon and from there it was mostly all Illustrator and then the Machine Shop. 

One side of the board

Second side of the board

As I stated earlier, I was not totally pleased with my finished piece, but trial and error added to my understanding of how engraving works. If I were to redo or add to this piece, I would make the outlines deeper, or even go as far as to use the laser to carve out or burn the inner parts of the leaves, and leave the holes to be more shallow as a contrast.