Keychain Project

Description

My keychain was a picture of my cat with engraved details on one side and a sticker of the original image that I made the engraving and shape from.

Reflection

Something that went well in this project was my engraving, which I think was able to capture all of the important details.

One of the challenges that I faced was trying to figure out what to do with my sticker - in the end I chose the option to just mirror the image that I was already using for the engraving. Another challenge I had was figuring out which parts of the cat to include as an engraving, engraved line, or to leave out.

If I were to redo this project, I would try to design a more creative sticker with another image of my cat that looks more interesting.

Images

Creation process steps

First, I chose my image and imported it into Adobe Illustrator. I traced the outline path that I wanted using the pen tool.

I then chose a location for my keychain ring hole, made it slightly larger than the ring, and created a compound path with the outside path and the ring hole.

I added some engraving details onto the image including filled sections and thin lines.

Finally, to ready the file for lasercutting, I removed the image, set the colors to black, and 0.001 point for the part I wanted cut through the wood.

To start my sticker, I removed my engraving details and left just my original path and the image I was using.

I duplicated the outline path in the same spot as the original and used it as a clipping mask on the background image to create an image with the right shape.

I set the stroke color for the sticker outline to the correct color for the sticker cutter to cut the outline of the sticker.

Once I flipped the image, since the sticker needed to go on the back of the keychain, the sticker file was also complete.

Page updated

Report abuse