I was really happy with the leather etching experiments I did last week, but I decided that I wanted explore working with other materials in the laser. I've been interested in working with glass in general lately, so I started to think about building some sort of light or glass sculpture, and figuring out what elements I might want to include. I'd been really happy with the effect of the generative penrose pattern that I etched on the leather so I decided to stick with generating patterns through processing. For this initial test I decided to use plexi (which I had on hand) instead of glass.
I used a processing sketch to generate a series of overlapping circle which I then etched into 1/4" plexiglass at varying speed/power combinations.
I used a processing sketch to generate a series of overlapping circle which I then etched into 1/4" plexiglass at varying speed/power combinations.
I found that as I raised the speed of the laser the plexi would become less clouded (the fastest etch on the right) however the quality of the line up close was a little jittery. If I were to use this effect on glass there would be no clouding, however, for this project I decided that the pattern in general was a little busy and I decided to table glass/plexi etching for another day.
Instead I decided to make a little table lamp that would have silhouetted shapes and a clear, un-etched plastic case. I started by mirroring a vector image of a tree into a slightly more abstract shape and cutting my pieces out of 1/8" basswood. There was a bit of a logjam at the laser cutter (I can't imagine why) so for cutting my plexiglass box I used the bandsaw and belt sander.
Instead I decided to make a little table lamp that would have silhouetted shapes and a clear, un-etched plastic case. I started by mirroring a vector image of a tree into a slightly more abstract shape and cutting my pieces out of 1/8" basswood. There was a bit of a logjam at the laser cutter (I can't imagine why) so for cutting my plexiglass box I used the bandsaw and belt sander.
I had some pretty reclaimed molding on hand which I decided to use as my base, and a little lamp from ikea fit snuggly inside (with a small hole cut for the cord to escape). In future versions I think it would be nice to combine this general design with a minimally etched glass interior.