For this assignment, we had to take items from The Noun Project and use them in Easel in order to CNC them into a block of wood. So first I had to choose my wood. I chose to use pine because it is simple and cheap. It is light in color and weight. Then the hard part for me was to choose what I wanted to CNC. I looked for Game of Thrones items, but they all looked awkward. Then I looked at Pokemon, but they were only eh, and did not look to wonderful. Then I searched up anime, and there was a lot of Dragon Ball hair styles, which is not what I wanted to engrave into wood. But then I searched for Totoro, and I came up with a winner. I then also found a soot sprites, and then I also found No Face. So I decided to add those into the mix and make it a Ghibli mash up.

 

Once I finished deciding the nouns I wanted to use, I then had to download the svg files and then import them into Vectr, which allowed me to delete any text that was within the image. So once I took out the text from the files, then I exported it again and then imported it into Easel. For my first file, I was confused and I tried to just import it into Vectr and then directly export it into Easel without taking out the text, and that made Easel mad. It wouldn’t let me import the file because of the text. So then I figured to delete the text at the very bottom, that I didn’t see at first. Once I did that, Easel was happy and accepted the file.

Once I was able to get all of the files into Easel, then I had to state the dimensions of my wood that I would be working with in Easel. Then that changed the dimensions of the wood, then I set it to Birch Plywood, which I think is the closest to pine. Then I resized the images to all fit on the piece of wood. Since I am impatient, I decided to use 1/16 bit rather than a 1/32 to save time. So I sacrificed some detail. The main thing that I lost was No Face’s face/head circle. But it is kind of fitting with the name I think. So it works. Also it now appears that he is just looming in the background, which he kind of does. So it is fitting. Then the details of Totoro’s chest is less defined, but still there. Then the soot sprite is less spiky and more rounded, but that is ok.

So after I organized the Easel file how I wanted to, carving took only 17 minutes, so not bad at all. I put in the wood and clamped it down and let it run. I did notice that clamping it did leave small marks on the pieces of wood, but they are not that noticeable. It just shows that I securely clamped the wood down.

Once I finished carving up both of the blocks of wood, I sandblasted them to smooth out the insides of the carvings. It made them smooth, but it also ended up leaving visible dark marks on the wood. I think this is because there were small indentations in the wood before, and then by sandblasting, it emphasized them and made them bigger.

Then after I sandblasted and made them all smooth, I decided to use beeswax in order to make the wood smooth, so I did that for the surface and for the carvings of the wood. It changed the color a little bit at first. But then I checked up on them later on and the color change was very small.

And that is all I did for my pieces. If I were to do anything different, I would have sandblasted it a little less. Also, it would be helpful to have a sign explaining the steps for the sandblaster for the Lab Techs. And a step stool because I get tired from standing on my tippy toes trying to look into the sandblaster. I like how the carvings look, even though I had to sacrifice some detail. I think they turned out really well in the end. I think I could have added some Lin Seed Oil to change the color some more after the beeswax, but I liked how the wood felt after the wax, so I left it as is.