Eyebloom - Process

 For my coaster I wanted to go for a more unique design and imagery that wasn't just a simple circle or square. For this reason I chose my "Eyebloom" design from my sketches. Making the actual design in Rhino was the easiest part in my opinion. The shapes were fairly simple and most of the shapes in the design were symmetrical on both sides, meaning I could make one shape and mirror it on the other side. This made the process of drawing the coaster in Rhino really easy and simple. The most difficult part was preparing the files and actually laser cutting the design. I chose to use the TroLase acrylic for the two colours. When I went to the laser cutting appointment, I did a first pass with some burgundy acrylic they had in the scrap pile as a test, and it was then where I ran into some issues. There seemed to be a few issues with my file with some of the lines that were a bit of a pain to fix. The type of hatching I also put in the initial Rhino drawing translated onto the engraving so the engraving wasn't exactly as solid as I wanted. There was also an issue with the line width on some of the engravings. In the first test coaster, some of the lines were too thin so they ended up being very faint on the coaster or did not engrave at all. 

In the second coaster cut, I fixed the lines and line width so that they would show up better and change the hatch pattern so that the engravings would be more of a solid colour. The second coaster cut turned out a lot better compared to the first one. The only other thing I would change about the second one would be the size. My coaster is roughly 4x3inches and I googled that the average coaster size is around 4x4inches but tested it with a cup and it felt a bit small to me. It could possibly be because my coaster is a non conventional shape that it feels small. If I were to make a third cut I would make it maybe 5x4inches. Overall I am pretty satisfied with the design and result, again the only thing I would change would be making it bigger.

Final


Coaster with Cup


First Test


Rhino Render


Laser Cut File
















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