Luxury Coffee: Laser Cutting Experiments

Paper has been used to gain an idea of how the topography lines would look if they where cut out or etched into the metal. To explore this process different settings have been experimented with in order to see how deep I could engrave into the paper in order to make an indentation that could be both seen and felt.

Engrave:
Figures 1-2  show some experiments using the engrave on 'library paper' feature on the laser cutting which where not very successful as they've just marked the paper rather than creating an indentation in the paper. This lead to use of using the engraving setting but setting the medium to a material thicker than the paper I was using, as this would create greater pressure from the laser onto the paper making a greater indentation. This experiment did work however didn't create the desired effect as although the indentation was a greater than previous experiments it lacked impact and wasn't very tactile when felt.

Cut Through:
As the use of the engraving feature failed to create the desire effect I decided to see how the line would look if they where cut out of the page. Initially I felt this experiment was very successful (see figure 3) due to the large scale of the design however when used on a smaller scale an engraved effect was created as the design kept its shape due to the small and compact nature of the design. Furthermore due to the success of using cut through I decided to see if a deeper indentation could be created without cutting through the paper by setting the medium to a lighter stock to see if the laser would just indent the page rather than cutting through as the stock was thicker than the laser was programmed with (see figure 4). Although this did work personally I felt cutting through the paper was more visually effective as due to the simple lines within the design remains a solid form rather than sections falling out of the design as seen on a larger scale (see figure 3). Furthermore upon receiving feedback others preferred the designs which where cut through as this has a greater visual impact.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4