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Instructor:  Casey McCarty

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Make your own silhouette art with a simple photo and our laser cutter & engraver!

A classic art popular since Victorian times, frame silhouettes of your children, family or pets for timeless home décor, or get creative with this accessible process to make jewelry, gifts, scrap-booking ephemera and more.

Our instructor will walk you through the easy process--capture the photo of your choice, learn how to transform the photo into a vector, and how to turn the vector into a laser-cut piece.

What to bring:

For this project, please have a digital file of a profile head-shot, such as the example (which features CIF Director Alex Bandar...but you can use your child, spouse, or friend!)  Any relatively clear shot will do--it can even be from your cell phone (email it to yourself)! Please also bring a flash drive (USB memory stick) if you have one, for your convenience.

Please bring you laptop, and download Inkscape, a free and open-source vector editing program available for download HERE.  If you don't have a laptop, you can still learn the process by watching along on the projector, and following class will receive a PDF with the instructions sent to you via email.

We will walk you through the process of transforming your photo to vector art and setting up the vector and file for use on the laser cutter.

The instructor will then cut your silhouette out of your choice colour mat-board (provided). For future applications you could use a variety of materials on the laser--wood, fabric, leather, cork, and acrylic, for example. There are no pre-requisite classes or required previous knowledge of the software or the laser.

A brief overview  of the laser will be included as we cut the files, but you can learn how to operate the laser yourself for future projects with the Introduction to Laser Cutting and Engraving class.  Members who have taken the Intro to Laser class will be able to rent the laser for their own personal or business use.

About the Instructor

Casey McCarty, Assistant Director of the CIF and Etsy Team Columbus leader and artisan whose work can be found in several central Ohio boutiques, CS Gallery in Olde Towne, and on Etsy.