Most of the time I’ve spent with the laser cutter has centered around learning what different materials will do when cut or etched, and thinking about how to use Illustrator as a pattern-cutting tool. I’m not sure that I made anything before this that I couldn’t have made some other way in a similar amount of time. But in making this felt box I finally took advantage of one of the best features of the tool — generating multiples!

I made a little pile of them in like 10 minutes. So exciting!

They’re cute and fuzzy, utilitarian, and fun to fold. I think they look happy when they’re full of stuff.

At first I tried to make a test version out of paper, but it didn’t work very well. (Paper’s not as pliable and forgiving as felt.) I also had been trying to do all the design thinking in Illustrator ahead of time at home, so I could simply go into the learning studio, cut out the thing and be done. But it didn’t really work out this way — some tweaking was required.

Turns out it’s much much easier to cut one out of felt, mess with it (cut it up, draw on it, squish it), adjust the Illustrator file, cut out a new one, and repeat as necessary. Hey, I guess that’s rapid prototyping in a nutshell.

Possible next steps are to try scaling them differently (shorter sides, more rectangular shapes, steeper angle to the top) and incorporating a second contrasting color showing through cut-outs. Since I only can visit the learning studio once in a while I still am doing a lot of thinking about the design away from the laser cutter. But I’ve also got four of them to futz with while I re-work the design.

In the last couple of weeks, I have spent many evenings playing around with our new laser cutter in the learning studio. So far I have not started any big projects, but just enjoyed the opportunity to work with such different materials on the same machine. It’s astonishing how the cutter can produce acrylic gears, colorful fabric designs, etchings in a mirror surface, fragile paper ornaments, or wood cut-outs (more in this Sample Gallery).

The image to the left shows quick 10 minute clip art designs we used to test materials, below is an example of a bigger project by Kristina Larsen. She just started  to use the laser cutter with Adobe Illustrator for her artwork.

“I’ve been wanting to do something with this design for a long time. The black felt is made of polyester and the rest is a slightly thinner rayon/wool blend. The non-synthetic felt looks and feels much nicer, so I plan to swap out the black with the good stuff in dark brown. Once it’s all together I’ll attach it to a backing material, probably fabric.

I find the process of fitting the pieces together immensely satisfying, like working on a squishy jigsaw puzzle. I’m also happy with the combination of precision cuts and organic lines, and that I’ve managed to use computer and laser cutter to make something warm and handmade feeling.”