The Art of Laser Cutting Paper

Drawing with Fire

Tom Sowden
What is laser cutting?
Carbon dioxide is excited in a
chamber. Emerging as light
from an aperture in the
chamber, the beam is focused
by a series of mirrors, a lens
and through a nozzle down to a
thickness of approximately
0.2mm.
When the beam comes in to
contact with a material it cuts
through by vaporising it. The
nozzle moves across the
surface of the material on an x
and y axis that allows designs
to be cut or engraved with a
high level of accuracy and
complexity in a variety of
materials.
Laser cutting in the Centre for Fine Print Research
Laser cutting courses at the Centre for Fine Print Research
Laser cutting in the Centre for Fine Print Research
Charlotte Hodes at the Centre for Fine Print Research producing a laser
cut edition of multi-layered prints.
Laser cutters used in artistic production
Ara Petersen
Tube, 2008. Laser cut birch wood and acrylic paint, mirror. 45 x 45 x 88 cm (left)
Black Tube, 2010. Wood and acrylic paint. 35 x 35 x 55 cm (right)
www. .ratio3.org/artists/ara-peterson
Daniel Widrigs laser cut model (left) and Jared Tarbells cubes and spheroids (right)
http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/art_in_berlin/index.php?page=2
Laser engraved bamboo iPod cases by Grove
www.grovemade.com/
The laser cutter used in industry
Exploring the laser as a creative
paper cutting tool
Cutting a variety of papers
Reducing the scorch marks when cutting paper
Normally oxygen is blown over
the surface of a material as it is
being cut. Replacing this with
an inert gas, such as nitrogen,
helps to reduce the amount a
material burns and therefore
the scorch marks on the
material.
Early experiments in combining digital printing and laser cutting to create
pop-up pages for a book.
Image courtesy of Google Street View.
Using the laser cutter for packaging production
Using the laser cutter to create an altered book. More later
Mette-Soe D. Ambeck
Josef von Sternberg Shadow is
Unique book produced for the Regenerator Altered Books Project at UWE in 2007
Mette-Soe D. Ambeck
: ankomst/afgang, 2009. Hand-cut and pamphlet stitched in Heritage 200gms
acid-free paper, 19.5 x 52cm (left)
Steam, Salt, Milk a nordic creation myth, 2000. An English translation of the
Nordic creation myth, illustrations are hand-cut and burnt (right)
www.ambeck.mdd.dk
Mette-Soe D. Ambeck, 10+, 2006.
10+ are 10 ordinary objects which, combined, make a distinctive and unusual new
robot. Hand-cut, ink-jet printed and pamphlet stitched, 21x14.9cm, edition of 10
Su Blackwell
The Lake and the Boat, book-cut sculpture
Inspired by a fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson
Su Blackwell - Book-cut Sculptures
Birds of the Open Forest Dawn Series, 2006 (left)
The Castle (right)
www.sublackwell.co.uk
Su Blackwell, While You Were Sleeping, installation
The use of a laser cutter by book
and paper artists
Olafur Eliasson, Your House, 2006
454 page laser cut artists book of Olafurs house in Copenhagen. Commissioned
by the Library Council of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
www.olafureliasson.net/publications/your_house_1.html
Scott Campbell, Make It Rain, 2009
www.scottcampbelltattoo.com
Lane Twitchell, Downwinder, 2007 (detail on right)
Fabric base sheet with hand coloring and laser cut top layer. 52 x 30cm.
www.lanetwitchell.com/multiples.php
Rob Ryan
Clockwise from below:
Laser cut card
You Are My Universe, 45 x 40cm, hand cut,
2010
Can We Shall We (Black), limited edition of
250, laser cut, 2009
www.misterrob.co.uk
Sabrina Basten, Heartbreakhotel, 2005
Installation, 15 x 10m, oak branches,
laser cut paper owers, glue.
http://sabrinabasten.com/static.php?page=blute
The Barbarian Group,
Biometric Butteries, 2007
An installation in the exhibit
Interactivity at the McLeod
Residence, Seattle.
http://mcleodbutteries.com/
Matt Cottam, Paper Dolls Furniture, 2009
Matts contribution to Papercamp London was a set of paper dolls
furniture cut and etched on the laser cutter from 300gsm paper.
www.openarts.org/matt/2009/01/18/paper-dolls-furniture-laser-cut-for-papercamp/
Jenny Smith
zoom - resize, 2007 (left), untitled - square, 2006 (right)
www.jennysmith.org.uk
Michael Mandiberg. Clockwise from top left: Before and After, 2009;
FDIC Insured, 2010; World Book End, 2009; Old News, 2009
www.mandiberg.com and www.flickr.com/photos/theredproject/
Emily Morris, Mister Charlesworth, 2007
www.ragandbone.com/blog/?p=714
and
www.myspace.com/mistercharlesworth
Ingrid Siliaku. Clockwise from left: Captured, 2008; Innerrings, 2008;
Innerrings (detail)
http://ingrid-siliakus.exto.org/
Lyndi Sales, Shatter, 2007. 159 SAA boarding passes and pins,
200 x 200 x 8cm, edition of 3.
www.lyndisales.com
Charlotte Hodes
Untitled, inkjet with laser cut, 2007,
70 x 40cm.
Printed and laser cut at the Centre
for Fine Print Research, UWE.
http://www.marlboroughneart.com/artist-
Charlotte-Hodes-141.html
Mia Pearlman
Inrush, 2009 (left), Eye, 2008 (right)
www.miapearlman.com
Mia Pearlman, Voluta
Shaul Tzemach
Concretion, 2005-7 (top left), Mole Traces, 2009 (top right and details below)
Anish Kapoor, Wound, 2003
Wound is published in a numbered edition of 25. Each copy consists of
four parts. Each part is signed and numbered by Anish Kapoor.
For a detailed description on the production of this book please see:
www.factum-arte.com/eng/artistas/kapoor/book.asp
Francesca Gabbiani, White Book, 2005
An artists book that was inspired by the novel, Devil in the White City by Erik
Larson, about the Chicago's World Fair of 1893 and a serial killer who stalked in
the midst.
www.lorareynolds.com/exhibitions/about/francesca_gabbiani_wonderland/
Yuken Teruya
Lost and Found, The New York Times, 2007 (left)
Notice- Forest (McDonalds paper bag), paper bag, glue, 2005 (right)
www.yukenteruyastudio.com/en/projects/
A future for the laser cutter?
Sarah Bodman and JP Willis
How Do I Love Thee? 2009
Inspired by the Romantic
poet Elizabeth Barrett
Brownings Sonnet 43. An
example of how far people in
love will go to keep it.
There are attributes of the laser cutter that differentiate it
from hand cut work, that needs to be embraced such as the
repeat cut butteries by Frea Buckler.
www.freabuckler.com