The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Layered Paper: Whimsical Perching Bird

    Start by scanning a page from the (©2013 paper!) Whimsical Designs Coloring Book and opening it in GIMP:

    Whimsical Perching Bird - outline
    Whimsical Perching Bird – outline

    Mary says the book is intended for appliqué quilting, which seems close enough to layered paper for my simple purposes.

    Select the black lines and grow the selection to about 1.5 mm wide:

    Whimsical Perching Bird - mask selection
    Whimsical Perching Bird – mask selection

    After some editing, convert the selection to a path, then save the path as SVG to create the Black Mask layer.

    Clear the selection and bucket-fill the outlines with cheerful colors:

    Whimsical Perching Bird - colored
    Whimsical Perching Bird – colored

    If you’re fussy, you might devote a sheet of black paper to the eye, but I just dabbed a dot of black marker.

    Load into LightBurn and knock out paths on successive layers:

    Whimsical Perching Bird - LightBurn layout
    Whimsical Perching Bird – LightBurn layout

    Stack sheets of colored paper in the appropriate order, Fire The Laser, paste the layers together, and frame:

    Whimsical Perching Bird - framed
    Whimsical Perching Bird – framed

    After working through the Cornell Painted Warblers, it really was that easy!

    Stipulated: I cannot draw even simple Art, but I enjoy my time in the engine room.