Laser cutting

I feel like I've turned the corner with CAD..at last... It doesn't come naturally and like everything else it needs practice and patience neither of which I have had in any generous measure to date, but I will not admit defeat and finally think I'm getting somewhere.  I've had a lot of help from fellow students (infinite patience) and now the pressure is off i.e. I don't have work to hand in that relies on the process, I have a more relaxed attitude to learning the actual programme and it is starting to sink in.  I was very excited last week to spend the whole day (completely of my own violation!) playing with Adobe Illustrator - doing extremely basic and simple things but keeping doing them until they felt 'natural' and easy and extremely basic and simple... now time to move onto something harder!!! I find Youtube tutorials very varied but on the whole useful, easier in the long run then being in a noisy crowded CAD suite with too many people asking too many questions... distracting confusing and destroys confidence!!

Part of the reason I feel better is my laser cutting project came back and I was very pleased with the results.  My samples had been very disappointing so when I finally submitted my finished artwork to be laser cut I wasn't really expecting any great shakes and in fact was trying to work out how I was going to make it work - maybe adding ribbons, any embellishments to disguise what I fully expected to be not particularly attractive outcome.

So imagine my surprise when it landed on my desk and to a large degree it had worked out!!! In fact it was pretty much what I had envisioned in my fantasy world of actually being able to make it work! Shock and awe and a very pleasing morning spent building up the final artwork using all the little bits and pieces, finally using hands to fashion final boards for submission... It didn't go unnoticed, even my tutor commented on how happy I was to be making something rather than being on the computer.

The photos posted here are not the best quality as the conditions for taking them were rushed and not ideal but it gives an idea... Also very strange to be working with very little colour, so much so I had to add brown paper to lift the cut away bits, but I liked the 3d effect again not really evident in these illustrations.

While I was pleased at what I had achieved, some of the work of the other students was totally amazing.  I think they had a better understanding of not just the process to get the artwork sorted but also a better idea of how to engineer the actual content and use it to the best advantage.  This coupled with obvious talent and fantastic skills produced some extremely complicated and beautiful designs. Inspiring and motivating..... I'm starting to have lots of ideas about how I can incorporate these lovely clean cut designs into future constructive work!

I have bitten the bullet and taken the leap of faith and purchased the Adobe programmes needed to continue my practice and I intend to look at how I can use these newly acquired skills (as hopefully I continue to acquire them) - after all doing this degree is about learning and applying new skills, I've been able to knit, weave, embroider for a long time and now I have an opportunity to learn contemporary methods which hopefully I can use to enhance future work.  It's all very exciting!!!!