It’s time for yet another wedding here, and while an off-the-shelf $30 toaster from the registry would’ve been perfectly acceptable, I figured I could at least offer to make something custom. I’m always wary about being “that guy” who ignores the person a gift is for and only thinks about what cool thing I want to make, but when I suggested the possibility of a custom gift to the mother of the bride, she was gung-ho in favor of it. (Apparently, I must make some nice stuff.)
I had her look around to see what type of thing she might think they’d like, and after a few days she came back with the suggestion of a wood charcuterie board. I suggested slate instead, as I thought it might make a bit more elegant piece. She thought slate would indeed be very nice, and she sent me an image of a design idea she thought was nice.
So, I took her image and went through a vast number of typefaces to find a nice pleasing set for the design. After settling on the typefaces, I then rendered the design and proceeded to do a significant amount of manual kerning, especially to the date. I even managed to work up a sprig of southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) as the accent piece, as the wedding will be outside under one of our beautiful live oaks. I then made a slate coaster as a proof so she could see the design. (This was engraved on a 60W MOPA fiber laser with two sublayers – the first engraves, and the second creates a micro-pebbly vitrified surface that makes the design really pop when it’s wet.)
She liked the design, so I went ahead with the 12"/300mm slate engrave. Then, since I have plenty of slate coasters in stock, I figured why not make a set with the same design to include with the board. And, well, obviously, I’d need a box to keep everything together and unbroken.
The box and insert were cut from 5mm plywood on my 100W CO2 gantry laser. The pieces were then engraved on my 30W CO2 galvo laser. The slate was engraved on my 60W MOPA, of course.
I think it’ll just get some nice corner ribbon and a bow to tie it closed, unless someone really thinks it should be traditionally wrapped. I think it turned out pretty nice.
