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Step 5The Finished Product
It's ready to be mailed!
Congratulations.
This experiment was a success for me, but it's really just the beginning. There are a lot of satisfying variations on this technique, using different materials, fonts, etc.
For instance, sometimes the letters that get cut-out are far more precious and attractive than the piece they are cut from. You can see this effect in the sample photos below.
Also, Zapfino is just one font - you can use other, pre-made stencil fonts, or use the counter-bridging technique we used here to make "laser-safe" versions of your favorites. Also, with access to free font generation software like Font Forge you can make permanent "laser-safe" versions. That's how I started making an OpenType version of Stencilano; I hope that I have time to make more in the future.
Please comment or share if you have any other ideas or applications to use with this technique.
Congratulations.
This experiment was a success for me, but it's really just the beginning. There are a lot of satisfying variations on this technique, using different materials, fonts, etc.
For instance, sometimes the letters that get cut-out are far more precious and attractive than the piece they are cut from. You can see this effect in the sample photos below.
Also, Zapfino is just one font - you can use other, pre-made stencil fonts, or use the counter-bridging technique we used here to make "laser-safe" versions of your favorites. Also, with access to free font generation software like Font Forge you can make permanent "laser-safe" versions. That's how I started making an OpenType version of Stencilano; I hope that I have time to make more in the future.
Please comment or share if you have any other ideas or applications to use with this technique.
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The size of these cutouts worked for the material I was using - 7.5 mil mylar with adhesive backing. I had to adjust them to go from paper to mylar since the mylar was shrinking a bit on cutting with the laser.
I've also put together a batch of stencil-like fonts at this page:
http://inaflashlaser.com/fontcreation/stencil/
Some of them aren't perfect stencils though and would need some editing.