Turtle doves pair for life - so I think they are beautiful birds to seek inspiration from when designing something as a wedding gift. The wedding of my friends Hannah and Calum gave me an opportunity to conduct some lasercutting experiments at the fantastic Famous Grouse Ideas Centre here in Perth using a tutle dove theme. The design incorporated the names of the couple into the love heart shape formed out of their two wings. I cut out two versions of the design. The first was from recycled plywood (sourced from Glasgow Wood Recycling). I liked the fact the wood was not perfect - hence the flaw in the tail.
You can see that I created the design but cutting out the two doves, and then 'rasterising' into it. This means I used the laser to cut down into the plywood - it removes the top layer and creates a sunken area about 1mm down. I tinted the sunken or rasterised areas in a silver paint, then rollered acyrlic paint over it - this created a very smooth white coating. The contrast between the white upper layer and the dark silver sunken areas is visually effective.
TThe second version was created out of wood veneer, which I sourced from Sawn Constructional Veneers. This is an oak veneer. Oak is a very strong wood. You can see that I chose to cut out the design for this version, rather than rasterising. To avoid the wood snapping or burning, you need to choose a strong wood, so the oak was perfect. When it is stained with Danish Oil, the grain really shows up, and looks beautiful. I did not know which version I preferred, so I gave Hannah and Calum both!