I’m glad my blog is written and doesn’t involve videos of me speaking as my cold has become so bad that I now literally have no voice. It just became gradually worse throughout the week and I think i’ve coughed so much that my voice box has given up for the moment. Anyway, onto this weeks updates!
On Monday this week I was using the laser cutter for a small slot, only about 3 hours but I managed to get one side of my acrylic finished. The laser cutter is becoming increasingly busy as we head ever further towards degree show.
On Tuesday I had my tutorial with Louise, which went pretty well. I need to do a bunch of experiments on text which she reminded me about, although I didn’t get a chance to do them this week so I will have to get going with that tomorrow. She wants me to measure the wall in my degree show space and then make a Photoshop file practising the scale of the vinyl letters. I’m not sure how i’m supposed to measure a wall other than a measuring tape (it’s quite big) but I guess i’ll figure something out tomorrow.
In the afternoon I went down to the vinyl cutter and Rob showed me how to use it. I was pleasantly surprised as it is so quick to cut letters – I don’t know why I was expecting it to be as slow as the laser cutter but it is incredibly fast.
Wednesday and Thursday I was in the laser cutter for the whole of these two days and I managed to get four sides etched. It was pretty mind-numbing sitting moving the mouse every five minutes so the laser cutter didn’t freeze (it tends to do that with my files, I think it’s because they are so detailed). It was pretty satisfying though because now that means I only have one single side left to etch. I have booked in for Monday and Tuesday 3 hour slots so I will definitely be finished all of my acrylic so that will be an achievement. I tested out the new pieces and the light shines well through them as I was very careful not to make the image dense.
On Friday I was down in the wood workshop for the entire day. My wood has finally been cut and routed and it is ready to go on Monday. It took much longer than I expected to get it ready, but I didn’t even know it had to be cleaned before I could use it. We’ve decided the frames are going to be quite large, even taller than me which is quite amusing. The frame itself is quite thin meaning all attention should be drawn to the acrylic inside. I also discussed hinges with the wood workshop. Louise suggested decorative hinges to me which I wasn’t adverse to, but the wood workshop said they would be far too flimsy as my frames will be incredibly heavy once they are made.
Next week the aims are to get started on my frames and perhaps get a few wired up, work more on my vinyl letters and finally finish my acrylic panels. I hope i’ll manage to do all that with no voice… I guess we’ll find out next week!
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