Botanical orchid line art

[littlefrog]

Weird request... I'm playing with a laser cutter and would like to burn some nice orchids into wood. I can get near photo resolution, but in black and lighter black, obviously.

Does anybody have any nice black and white line drawings to share? If it turns out nice I'll send you a physical copy if you'd like.

Thanks
Rob

 

[Paphluvr]

You don't like any of the ones you can find online? How do you get the image into the laser cutter? Are the images scanned and then scaled to the size you want? I wouldn't think that you would find many detailed photo quality line drawings in black and white.

 

[Ray]

Does something like this work? I can provide a larger version.

 

[littlefrog]

Does something like this work? I can provide a larger version.

Probably work. If you have a larger version it would work better.

Thanks!
Rob

 

[littlefrog]

You don't like any of the ones you can find online? How do you get the image into the laser cutter? Are the images scanned and then scaled to the size you want? I wouldn't think that you would find many detailed photo quality line drawings in black and white.

Found some things I like online, but was reluctant to use some of it because of copyright issues.

The laser cutter just works off of pretty standard image files - I haven't printed a photo in a while so I can't quite remember, but it will come back to me. There are lots of online tutorials.

 

[Paphluvr]

Am I correct in assuming that you want to burn the images into wood with the idea of selling them once you perfect the technique, hence the concern about copyright infringement? How large a laser cutter are we talking about? The only ones I am familiar with are large x-y tables with a z axis for laser to travel up and down on, similar to a plasma cutter.

Early in my career I was a field service engineer for a well know laser manufacturer in the industrial laser field.

 

[Ray]

Larger version emailed

 

[littlefrog]

Actually I wasn't even planning on selling them, just decorating a project (some wooden crates to use to take plants to shows). Is that commercial use or not? Not sure... Maybe if people like the crates I'd sell some.

This is an x-y grid, and the laser can travel to any point in that plane (about 2x2 feet of area). The laser is at a constant height from the project (no z travel - at least while the laser is moving). The intensity of the cut is determined by laser power (adjustable) and the speed of travel (also adjustable). So you could cut all the way through a piece if you had sufficient power or low enough speed (or both). Which is what I'm doing, I'll use the laser to cut the box panels (with finger joints). But as long as I'm doing that I thought it would be cool to put a picture on them.

Not my machine, I'm part of a co-op that shares the tools. People have engraved everything from acrylic to wood to bricks with this thing. And made some pretty cool projects. Virtually every container in the shop (for example the box of safety glasses) was made using this. It is pretty neat, lots of uses.

Am I correct in assuming that you want to burn the images into wood with the idea of selling them once you perfect the technique, hence the concern about copyright infringement? How large a laser cutter are we talking about? The only ones I am familiar with are large x-y tables with a z axis for laser to travel up and down on, similar to a plasma cutter.

Early in my career I was a field service engineer for a well know laser manufacturer in the industrial laser field.

 

[littlefrog]

Here is an example of something far more elaborate than I want to make - from the interwebs.

 

[Paphluvr]

Rob, I'm surprised that you don't have a logo on your web page. Something with an orchid or two and a poison dart frog would be cool both for your web site and for you to burn into your boxes.

 

[littlefrog]

I have a logo that is on my tags and I burn it onto my other wood projects. Not sure why I didn't migrate it over to the new website. It is a besseae with a dart frog.

 

[littlefrog]

This is the image that Ray sent me. Printed onto a piece of birch plywood. Could be a little darker, but I like the detail. It is about 8x8"

 

[Paphluvr]

Looks good, Rob. Keep playing with it. Wouldn't any photo converted to a sepia tone give you that effect?

 

[littlefrog]

Looks good, Rob. Keep playing with it. Wouldn't any photo converted to a sepia tone give you that effect?

Possibly. It is really a black and white print - the wood just doesn't burn to grey, it burns black or some shade of less black on the natural wood color - so it turns out sepia.

 

[silence882]

Hi Rob,

There are a bunch of black and white line drawings on the photo pages (mostly paph and phrag species) of my site. They're all well out of copyright:
http://slipperorchids.info/paphspecies/index.html

--Stephen

 

[littlefrog]

Hi Rob,

There are a bunch of black and white line drawings on the photo pages (mostly paph and phrag species) of my site. They're all well out of copyright:
http://slipperorchids.info/paphspecies/index.html

--Stephen

I will take a look. Thanks
Rob