For the laser cutting assignment I teamed up with Sarah. We have not yet gotten to cut our pieces but have created a plan to work from. We are going to create sketchbooks that we can then stack on top of each other or place next to one another. We are going to laser cut a cover and a back and then attach them using another material. I am really excited to see how this project turns out and how the two different books engage in conversation with one another.
UPDATE:
Learning how to use the laser cutter was a really fun assignment. I think this is something that I will definitely use in my own art practice (provided I have access to a laser cutter) and is just a really great process to know about. When creating the cover for my journal I wanted to laser cut an image of my dog. I figured this would be easy, I read some tutorials on how to convert the image and prepare it to be cut but I was wrong. Laser cutting an image actually proved to be very challenging and there was MANY failed attempts along the way. This was frustrating and I wanted to give up but I kept trying different ways of editing the image to see if maybe something could work. Finally, after consulting others about their ideas, googling nonstop and failing many times, a solution was found. I had to laser cut the image twice. First, was the general image with little detail and then only the key features of the face were cut directly on top of the first cut. This gave the image a really good level of detail as well as some depth to it. I was really happy with the results and my countless failures got me very familiar with the laser cutter and how to use it which is something I couldn't say before this assignment. After the raster cut of my dog was made I needed to cut down the wood to be the correct size for the book I was making. The pad of paper I used to make the book was an 18x24 which wound up being 9x12 when cut in half. Since the wood was 12x12 and I needed the paper to be 1/8 of an inch shorter than the book I had to cut two sides of the wood down to 9.125 inches. I did this by creating a vector shape of a rectangle. I then had to cut the holes for the book. This also proved to be a struggle as the first go put the holes in a very different spot than what I had planned on the screen. I learned that if you turn the power settings to 0 before you send your file to print, you can run the laser to see exactly where it will cut. This took a few tries but eventually I got the holes right where I wanted them to be.
Bookbinding:
Learning about book binding was a really great experience. However, much more goes into the process of creating a book then you would expect. Luckily, Sarah and I had Kristina, an expert on book binding, to help us out. We made her a mock book for her to show us how to bind a book. She lent us books and directed us towards great online tutorials. One in which I have linked below. Making the first practice book was difficult. But once I accepted that it was going to be a mess and not perfect it became a very fun and meditative process. Not only is the binding of the physical book a process but preparing the materials is as well. There's a lot of math involved in book binding which I never would have expected. We had to measure where the holes would go and use and awl to punch them in. We also had to use a bone folder to make crisp folds in our paper. The exactness of book binding is really intimidating. Sarah and I created coptic books sewn together with a kettle stitch. Though my books are by no means perfect I really enjoyed the experience and I look forward to doing more book binding in the future. There is something really cool about the combination of laser cutting a new technology and book binding, an old art form, this is one of the things I wanted to do that I mentioned in my learning objectives, combining traditional and new, and this was a perfect way to do that.
Tutorial link: https://crafts.tutsplus.com/tutorials/create-a-stunning-combination-coptic-long-stitch-archival-book--craft-3887
This was the first printing attempt. The only part that came out well was the feet. It is actually a different image then the one I ended up using. This is because this image took about 40 minutes to cut and included my dogs entire body and a wood floor background. Since this was going to take a lot of trial and error I figured it would be better to just use a photo of my dogs head and nothing else to limit issues arising in places that weren't essential to the idea; printing an image of my dog. The ink and marker covering the picture is because I thought that maybe applying something on top of the cut would bring out the subtle details that were only visible at certain angles, as you can see it didn't work out so well.
These are four different tests. The two large faces in the middle weren't giving enough detail so I stopped the files early. On top of one of the faces is another version of part of my dogs face, attempting to layer it on top and seeing what that would result in. The cut on the top left is of my dogs eye. It was the first time I got any slight resemblance of my dog, however, it is really dark and not how I wanted the image to look at all.
These were five different tests of a part of my dogs face. Only cutting a selection of the face made for a quicker test and provided all the information I needed. The first image was the best result but it had a very pixelated look to it and I knew I could get more detail than that. I tried painting over it to see what that would do but all it did was turn the same image white. I decided to apply similar effects to those in the first cut to the main features of my dogs face and try to layer that on top of the third cut because it gave the most detail out of the other versions.
That led to this tiny image of my dog. I printed the first file and then the second one directly on top and there it was, finally a recognizable cut of my dog. I don't think I have ever been so happy to accomplish something in art making before this moment. It really felt so great to be able to have gone through all those failed attempts, maybe 50 file versions and a huge desire to give up, and come out on the other side knowing I succeeded. I then cut the image out at the scale I wanted it to be and that resulted in the cover of my book.
This is the cover to my sketchbook. After cutting the image of my dog I cut the wood down to the size I wanted and cut the holes into it for binding.
This is the back cover of the book. As you can see there are three small holes close to the middle of the book. That was my first attempt at cutting the holes into the cover before I learned that I could run the laser without cutting anything. Luckily, the holes are pretty hard to punch out of the wood so I was able to keep the cut wood in its place and not have three random holes in my book. If the holes eventually pop out I am fine with that, it all serves as a reminder of how much time and energy went into this process and how in the ended I was successful.
This is my first attempt at bookbinding. As you can see I messed up (more than) a few times, but it was my first attempt and I am proud of the outcome. It stays together and opens like a book and that is really all that I need it to do.
UPDATE:
Learning how to use the laser cutter was a really fun assignment. I think this is something that I will definitely use in my own art practice (provided I have access to a laser cutter) and is just a really great process to know about. When creating the cover for my journal I wanted to laser cut an image of my dog. I figured this would be easy, I read some tutorials on how to convert the image and prepare it to be cut but I was wrong. Laser cutting an image actually proved to be very challenging and there was MANY failed attempts along the way. This was frustrating and I wanted to give up but I kept trying different ways of editing the image to see if maybe something could work. Finally, after consulting others about their ideas, googling nonstop and failing many times, a solution was found. I had to laser cut the image twice. First, was the general image with little detail and then only the key features of the face were cut directly on top of the first cut. This gave the image a really good level of detail as well as some depth to it. I was really happy with the results and my countless failures got me very familiar with the laser cutter and how to use it which is something I couldn't say before this assignment. After the raster cut of my dog was made I needed to cut down the wood to be the correct size for the book I was making. The pad of paper I used to make the book was an 18x24 which wound up being 9x12 when cut in half. Since the wood was 12x12 and I needed the paper to be 1/8 of an inch shorter than the book I had to cut two sides of the wood down to 9.125 inches. I did this by creating a vector shape of a rectangle. I then had to cut the holes for the book. This also proved to be a struggle as the first go put the holes in a very different spot than what I had planned on the screen. I learned that if you turn the power settings to 0 before you send your file to print, you can run the laser to see exactly where it will cut. This took a few tries but eventually I got the holes right where I wanted them to be.
Bookbinding:
Learning about book binding was a really great experience. However, much more goes into the process of creating a book then you would expect. Luckily, Sarah and I had Kristina, an expert on book binding, to help us out. We made her a mock book for her to show us how to bind a book. She lent us books and directed us towards great online tutorials. One in which I have linked below. Making the first practice book was difficult. But once I accepted that it was going to be a mess and not perfect it became a very fun and meditative process. Not only is the binding of the physical book a process but preparing the materials is as well. There's a lot of math involved in book binding which I never would have expected. We had to measure where the holes would go and use and awl to punch them in. We also had to use a bone folder to make crisp folds in our paper. The exactness of book binding is really intimidating. Sarah and I created coptic books sewn together with a kettle stitch. Though my books are by no means perfect I really enjoyed the experience and I look forward to doing more book binding in the future. There is something really cool about the combination of laser cutting a new technology and book binding, an old art form, this is one of the things I wanted to do that I mentioned in my learning objectives, combining traditional and new, and this was a perfect way to do that.
Tutorial link: https://crafts.tutsplus.com/tutorials/create-a-stunning-combination-coptic-long-stitch-archival-book--craft-3887
This was the first printing attempt. The only part that came out well was the feet. It is actually a different image then the one I ended up using. This is because this image took about 40 minutes to cut and included my dogs entire body and a wood floor background. Since this was going to take a lot of trial and error I figured it would be better to just use a photo of my dogs head and nothing else to limit issues arising in places that weren't essential to the idea; printing an image of my dog. The ink and marker covering the picture is because I thought that maybe applying something on top of the cut would bring out the subtle details that were only visible at certain angles, as you can see it didn't work out so well. 
These are four different tests. The two large faces in the middle weren't giving enough detail so I stopped the files early. On top of one of the faces is another version of part of my dogs face, attempting to layer it on top and seeing what that would result in. The cut on the top left is of my dogs eye. It was the first time I got any slight resemblance of my dog, however, it is really dark and not how I wanted the image to look at all. 
That led to this tiny image of my dog. I printed the first file and then the second one directly on top and there it was, finally a recognizable cut of my dog. I don't think I have ever been so happy to accomplish something in art making before this moment. It really felt so great to be able to have gone through all those failed attempts, maybe 50 file versions and a huge desire to give up, and come out on the other side knowing I succeeded. I then cut the image out at the scale I wanted it to be and that resulted in the cover of my book. 
This is the cover to my sketchbook. After cutting the image of my dog I cut the wood down to the size I wanted and cut the holes into it for binding. 
This is the back cover of the book. As you can see there are three small holes close to the middle of the book. That was my first attempt at cutting the holes into the cover before I learned that I could run the laser without cutting anything. Luckily, the holes are pretty hard to punch out of the wood so I was able to keep the cut wood in its place and not have three random holes in my book. If the holes eventually pop out I am fine with that, it all serves as a reminder of how much time and energy went into this process and how in the ended I was successful. 
This is the final outcome. Similar to the practice book I made, I made a lot of mistakes binding it together. I kept making the same mistake over and over again though and realizing just a stitch too late. Reading the notes I took from Kristina and following along with the tutorial (which has 4 holes instead of 3) was a little confusing and is part of why I kept doing some stitches wrong. All in all I'm happy with the outcome. There were a lot of steps to get to the final piece of this project. I learned a lot and now I have a sketchbook to show for it.
Hi Jackie! I am really looking forward to seeing how your project turns out. Since I was in the studio with you during your first attempt, I am looking forward to seeing how you overcome the issue with not a lot of contrast in yours first raster. I hope that you and Sarah can show me how to bind a book once you are done with your project!
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