Laser Nature '09 for Free Time Industries

Laser Cut Birch Jewelry

From the beginning, my vision for this project was to release a cohesive, wearable collection. I would stay late after work in the basement machine shop, experimenting with wood types, number of ply's, and laser settings, until the last bus would come by at midnight. When I showed the initial pieces to a stylist friend of mine, she asked to place them in an upcoming shoot.

I worked tirelessly to make the deadline for the photo shoot and created some of my favorite pieces. (Great thanks to photographer Kyle Johnson and stylist, Osiris Navaro.) That following week I worked on assembling the lookbook and sending out PDFs and printed materials to boutiques across the country. Even after all the work I had put in, I felt some surprise when orders started coming in for my designs.

I was able to outsource the laser cutting to a great local machine shop and with the help of a a handful of friends, was able to assemble, tag and inventory the pieces and fill the orders in a timely manner. It's amazing the amount of labor your friends will offer up for free when there is beer and Thai food involved (but really, thanks again to all of you who helped make this project come to life).

More After the Jump...




The line has ended up making its way into boutiques and shops all around the US. Here's the low down from the lookbook:

Laser Nature is built upon the combination of precise, industrial grade, machine laser cutting and hand crafted style drawn from Northwest plants and wildlife. Each piece is assembled via the same process, beginning from a hand illustration. This sketch is then transferred to wood though a 65 watt CO2 laser, resulting in an artifact burned from the surrounding material. The rough piece is then individually finished, while leaving the blackened edges of its conception intact.