T Savage - Laser Engraving

Laser-cut MDF. I am still deciding how to finish the project.

     This project was a collaboration with a close friend of mine. She had drawn a transgender symbol (the large symbol here, with the male, female, and mixed gender arrows) with a K (her first initial) attached. This became the centerpiece of the cut. Outside of the symbol is a field of chaotic lines reflecting both her relationship with her body and the way others sometimes define her based on her body. Inside the symbol, however, the lines are much thinner, calmer, and ordered - to reflect the calmness that identifying with the label and that transition can bring.

Rendered view of the symbol.

    Here is a rendered view of the model. The female and male portions of the symbol are colored with the colors typically associated with them, and the mixed arrow is yellow, to be as different as possible from both.

Engraving file in Rhino

    The background is the most interesting part of the process; it was created by rendering difference clouds in GIMP (a free raster image editor), then thresholding out the darkest and lightest parts. Afterwards I traced the raster image in Inkscape, converted it to .ai and imported it into Rhino where I had a Make2D view of the model and trimmed the background around it.