Laser Cutting Owls

Laser cutting is a satisfying experience. I find the skills of seeing images in a single colour I developed through linocutting translate well into laser cutting. It is helpful to be able to see an image made up of relatively simplified shapes yet with sufficient detail to indicate clearly what you are depicting. As with a linocut, you want areas made up of solid material sitting alongside textured areas. 

I wanted to do a design which was relevant to forestry, as I was giving this item as a gift to friends in the forestry sector. I also wanted something I could adapt into a Halloween gift for others. It is a long time since I created an owl, so I really enjoyed making this design.  It is a loose interpretation of a Tawny Owl. They are extraordinarily expressive birds.

Next step is to make the drawing into a design on free software Inkscape. You need to make it into what is called a vector drawing to enable the laser cutter to understand the instructions for either cutting it or ‘rasterising’ it. Rasterising is what you call using the laser cutter to burn out the top layer of your material to your specified design. Doing this stage on Inkscape also helps you visualise what the final piece will look like. 

Initially, I had really wanted the owl to be fully cut out - that is, no rasterising.  However, although it was possible to do this, as you can see in the piece above, cut from a piece of ash, it was simply too fragile.  The area where the feathers joined the eyes were too thin and would have snapped very easily.  It is always necessary to do this testing and to adapt your design.  In the end, instead of cutting out the inner areas, I decided to rasterise them and to use birch ply to do this.  This worked really well - the owl was much more robust as a result, and I was just as happy with the design.

You can see here my final owls.  With just a little bit of sanding, and application of beeswax, they were complete.  I was pleased that it was possible to make a little cut out hole just where one of the top feathers is, so they could be hung up.  I’m really pleased with them, and I think the ‘eyelash feathers’ are especially effective.  I’m definitely considering how to adapt this design as a print