Friday 27 April 2012

In the Frame

 by Pete Hughes


Well, I tried my best I really did but I can't stop fiddling around with the ecal software on the eclips machine. My good friend and fellow designer Paula sent me a link to a blog which showed a brilliant idea which translates perfectly to ecal.

Imagine never having to buy a Wedding, Christening or Anniversary present ever again! think I'm crazy? then read on......

I had some deep box frames kicking around so I measured the glass and set about creating the artwork that you can see below. My dear Friends are tying the knot on Saturday and it seemed like a perfect gift.

First I created the rectangular frame, then I created and welded the individual words (for all you 'fontaholics' I used Sanford) before playing around with their relative sizes and welding them together within the  frame. Finally,I added the swirls which are part of the shapes library which come with the ecal software; weld it all together and I'm ready to cut. At this point you can still stretch the artwork to fit the proportions of your frame if you need too.
Now all I have to do is attach some cream paper to the cutting mat, press the button and go and make a cup of tea while my eclips does all the work for me. The eclips is just a tool, a high tech pair of scissors if you like, but the real work (i.e. the design) is done before you even press the button.

I carefully teased the artwork away from the cutting mat and applied a light coating of spray adhesive. Next, and with equal care, I placed the glass from the frame onto the face of the design and mounted it into the frame. My friends love the work of designer William Morris so I chose a suitable paper to place in the back of the frame and that's pretty much it. One hour from start to finish.

Here's the end result, the design looks like it is floating above the background. I'm going to be playing around with a few more variations on this theme in the coming months, can't wait to see where ecal takes me next!






 

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