Recently outside of my laser cutting world I have been trying my hand at cake decorating using Fondant or Sugar gum.
Fondant is what all the good cake shops use to create beautiful cakes for parties and entice you in from their lavish window display.
A friend of mine who own’s such a cake shop, Zoete Zaken here in Tilburg (The Netherlands) once ask me if I could make some custom stamps to use in the fondant.
I thought I would give it a go and you know what, it worked.
So I can now make custom fondant stamps for all you lucky people. All I would need is a black and white logo or image.
Simply press the stamp into the fondant to create the shape and then you have to use either a knife to cut around the form or use a nice decorative cutter. Simple.
Here are a collection of laser cut gift cards, perfect for the day.
Each design is then backed with contrasting card to bring out the design.
$3.00 each
Need a nice box to put your Valentine’s gift in? Try our Love birds bird house.
You can lift up the lid and place your goodies inside. Close the lid and wait for your partner to come back to the nest!
$19.75
For those who prefer a more elegant way to impress perhaps these would do nicely.
Few know but without the flexiblity and versillity of the laser cutter the home 3d printing revolution may have looked a lot different.
Scores of new 3d printer companies are popping up all over the globe but they all have one thing in common, that is they all use laser cutting to produce the parts required to construct a machine. The laser cutter is able to produce simple to complex components in varied materials and thickness with precision accuracy and cost effective speed, added to that the low cost of materials and you can start to see why the laser cutter is playing such an important role in this way of making things.
Like 3d printers, the laser cutter has also been around for some time but it’s only now combined with the interest of 3d printers that the laser cutter is starting to be used far more often than ever before. Strangely enough the people who build 3d printers are thinking in a 2d way, “How can I best make this 2d part to cut easily”.
(Now, this is not the most amazing video of all time, but it does clearly illustrate the power of laser cutting).
Building something 3d for 2d is a puzzle and it’s not always straight forward. You start with your vision and work back from there. Adding in locking systems in the forms of studs and holes, nuts and bolts, some electronics, stepper motors and some travel rods and “Bang” you have made yourself a 3d printer.
You often hear people say the 3d printer is amazing and it is, but you never hear that of the laser cutter.
Why is that?
Just remember next time you hear about a home built 3d printer, it was the laser cutter humming away in the background that made it all possible.
After a long awaited time, with the help of Santa are happy to announce that my laser cut christmas decortaions are finally available through my Etsy shop.
All the decorations are Handmade in the Netherlands with a nostalgic feel to them.
I got the inspiration for this decroations from the German Christams decorations my parents had when I was young. Now living in The Netherlands it was only a matter on time.
Each and everyone of my decorations are first designed my myself, first on paper and then on the computer. After I get them the way I like I cut out the intricute patterns on my beloved laser cutter.
Each decoration is then finished of with a red cotton hanging cord.
You can purchase single or multiple decorations which are then carefully packed in a brown paper bag, sealed with a seasonal ribbon and a hot wax stamp.
Also available through my etsy shop are a range of gift cards.
On Saturday it was the belle bazzar event in Tilburg and it went really quite well.
We had a cosy loctaion amongst other hand crafted goods from all over The Netherlands
I presented all my laser cut goodies including my Christmas decorations and new christmas lantens, my arcylic rings, gift cards and my kids measuring stick.
Thank you to those who came along and a bummer for those who weren’t able to.
However all is not a loss as it looks like I will do it again on the 17th of December!
The use of laser cutters in various industries is growing no so more than in the textile industry.
Laser cut or engraved garments are starting to pop up here and there with fine details being the usual use of the systems.
Production companies have used lasers for some time to quickly cut out patterns in fabrics and leather, though it is usually large pieces.
Even companies like UGG shoes, the Australian sheep skin wool shoe manufacture has recently used lasers to engrave intricate patterns on the outside of theirs shoes.
With this is mind I wondered how hard this would be and what is needed to keep in mind.
Grabbing and old shirt I rarely wore I quickly designed my business name “muzoo design” in dots.
I used dots so the surrounding fabric still had enough structure.
I think the result is ok aprt from the 2 small burn marks that happened the moment I looked away, though this is easy to over come.
This is the first attemting and over the winter I will try a few more in time for summer next year.
If you have any good ideas I would like to hear them.
Ever wanted to eat your our jewelry or sweeten up your coffee in a unique way?
Well I can now help you with that.
This is a 3d printed ring I made using only my laser cutter and standard white sugar!
The process uses the heat generated in the laser beam to semi-melt the sugar crystals which are then fused together as it cools.
After a single pass on the laser I lowered the Z axis of the laser cutter, threw in a bit more sugar and hit “Go” once again.
I repeated this process 4 times and in the end it created this 5mm thick ring made from just sugar.
And the best part I didn’t even mention yet. While the laser is melting the sugar it smells just like Fairy Floss, oh yum.
How cool is that!?
Since this first attempt I have also produced and interlocking ring to prove its possible.
Now I am thinking of a printing system for even sugar delivery for improved part consistency.
Now I have to come up with something truly “sweet” to make, suggestions welcome.
The structure was stronger than I originally expected.
The ring shape after a single pass of the laser cutter.
