FMP Half Day Rush 14th April

Half Day Rush   14th April

Another half the day gone, I'm one step closer to the finished piece. Today I'm focusing on finalizing the last details of my design so that I can start making my piece and test how I will fix it together.

With today only being a half day, I didn't have long in the workshop to finish what I wanted. One of the many things I wanted to do was sort out if and how I could etch words into glass. I knew from research in my other projects that laser cutters can etch into glass, but it takes a long amount of time and it has to be etched over again for a deeper and clearer shapes.

Today Marriyah handed me the quote I needed. With this I could test out the effect the laser cutter has on the glass and how good the finish is. Once I had sorted out what words were to go on the glass, I could the start the template in Illustrator. Starting with the measurement of the piece of glass, I placed the writing in the centre. With the writing in and template finished, I could then start with the etching itself.

Before I could start the laser cutter, I had to place a piece of wet paper on top of the surface of the glass so that the laser itself didn't just pass right through the glass the first time it tried to etch it. I then had to go over the same piece over again so that the word would be clearer. After making the laser cutter repeat the etching 5 times, I could then take out the glass and see how it worked out.

With this being the first try of the glass etching for me, it worked out well. The words came out clear and readable, and the look of the words on the glass seemed to add texture and detail. The only thing I would change is the depth of the words. This is easily changed. All I would have to do is repeat the etching to achieve this.