What
In this workshop we will be going through the process of creating stencil suitable for the laser cutter (new and shinny way) or printing and cutting with an exacto knife. (Old school!)
The process:
We will be selecting photo or image from google image search, Altering the photo into a simple one or two color stencil. Using potrace to convert the image into a vector. Cleaning up the vector with inkscape to make it work in the laser cutter.
If you don’t have your VHS laser cutting training, 3rd party laser cutting services also are available like ponoko or Maker Labs or you can use a normal printer.
A laptop is required for this workshop.
Please install the following software before the workshop.
This is great! I was interested in these things for long time. Although, I know how to prepare half tone, or vector graphics for cutting stencils in Corel and Photoshop, I want to attend. There are many ways to prepare images and simple one to another order, or as little as two thing rendering can matter big time in shape preparation process. It will be great to do it in group.
We will be using GIMP ( http://www.gimp.org/ ) instead of Paint.net…
GIMP is free, Open source, and works on all the major platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac) This matches potrace and inkscape and should make this workshop OS independent.
Feel free to bring your own images.
I will be going through the tutorial with the images above but the techniques should work with any image.
After the main tutorial I will walk you though doing it with your image.
I’m going to buy some Never Wet this week and start stencilling the sidewalk in front of my house…
Just gonna have to wait for a few sunny days for the sidewalk to dry off…
Thanks to @funvill for the great workshop. Here’s one I did:
Original:
Stencilized:
And I mentioned that I used a similar process for etching mirrors. What I did was the same process, then scribble HEAVY with a pencil over the lines, flip it upside down onto the back of a mirror and press the extra graphite onto the back to transfer the art, then use a dremel to etch the backing off the mirror and backlight it.
Other than having to worry about islands, the process is there same. Here is the artwork for a Plants vs Zombies stencil if anyone cares to de-island-ify it:
and the original if anyone want to try their… hand… at it
