Introduction: Clay Business Cards

By Joeke van der Veen

Since I'm looking for internships, I decided to focus on presenting myself in a more professional way. My portfolio is already online, now I only needed some business cards to lure people to my website.

Instead of printing business cards, I decided to work with a material that reflects my way of working. I love to work with my hands and to experiment with crafts and materials. That's why I choose for clay (modeling dough). It looks handcrafted, is simple to use and is fragile and strong in the same time.

I experimented with two ways to engrave my name/website into the clay. Take a look!

Step 1: Experiment 1: Engraving With the Lasercutter

My first idea was to engrave my name, e-mail address and website into the clay.

I clayed a couple of cards and let them dry for two days. Once they where dry I experimented with the speed of the laser cutter. Look at the gif above to see which speed had which effect.

Step 2: Experiment 2: Make a Stamp

My second idea was to make a stamp of wood. I only used the link of my website in a bigger size, because the small letters wouldn't be really visible. I used the followings settings of the lasercutter to engrave the space around the letters: 85,7% power, 100% speed. I cutted out two plates, one with the link of my website and one blank and glued them together.

As you can see, this way is a lot faster and takes less time with the lasercutter. The only disadvantage is that you can only use letters in a big size, so there is no space left for for instance my name, phone number etc.