At the beginning
And so it begins….
I’ve always wanted to blog, but I never found the time. I am either too busy or too lazy to put forth ideas on paper. Tonight I am sitting and waiting for the laser engraver to finish a job. Instead of looking for more things to do, I decided it was time to share a little.
The creative process is the area where I thoroughly find my joy. I’ve always created, but never found my “voice.” About three years ago I shifted my focus from work into finding beauty wherever I am. I worked through scrapbooking, miniatures, book nooks, and finally laser cutting/engraving.
This medium, laser production, is where my passion lies. I can combine many of my interests into one “laser-focused” area. Take for instance this graphic. My client needed a new cover, for her essential oil notebook. When she ordered the cover, she told me that it didn’t matter what the cover looked like as long as it is functional. I began on her project tonight. My steps in production include:
Create a template of the old notebook.
This process involves scanning the notebook cover, importing the image into Photoshop, and recreating a new base outline of the new cover.The design elements begin. I must decide the image, font, and words that will go into the overall design. I think about the person who ordered the cover. I think about who the person is on the inside through my observations of the client.
The image defines the person. I don’t care how long it takes, the image has to reflect how I see the client. Through an extended search on freepick.com, I found the perfect graphic to describe the client.
Words are just words without a font that describes the feeling I am portraying through the style. I examined many fonts and decided on one: Engravers Roman BT. I feel like this font depicts the overall design element nicely.
Next comes the exporting of the template and graphics into Inkscape. Sizing all of the elements into the correct proportions can be tedious, but once again, when you create, you have the liberty to explore. Once the look is complete, I save the design. Now onto the laser engraver.
My design work is essentially over at this point. Through the importing of the final design into the engraving program, all that is left is “pushing the button.”
I follow this process for every item that is commissioned. Now you know my secret and why I say, “we make beautiful things for beautiful people.”
