First experiences with leather. In retrospect I should have the octopus rotated 180.
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My daughter liked the bracelet I made for my wife so a bit of a collaboration with her and we came up with this. It’s the same koi as above but enlarged and hand colored. I included the holes for the snaps this time since I knew their measurements. I’m quite happy with how this came out.
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Looks great! What’d you use to color the leather?
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Copic markers. High quality artists markers my daughter buys. She’s wearing it today, I am curious how it will wear.
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Ooh - i really like it. I love how the coi is bigger than the band. Totally curious about how it wears - please let me know. Once again, I love how seeing someone else’s ideas expand my own – I’ve been thinking about similar snapped leather bands, but didn’t consider the larger element… or that use of color!
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The color was Shiva’s idea entirely, it came out quite well I feel. The snaps are quite easy even with a simple kit from Michaels. Adding the outline of the koi to the cut line of the bracelet was an interesting task.
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Oh wow! This reminds me of the project I did where I made a paper cut with the laser, then used it as a stencil to “paint-by-numbers” on a separate sheet. Because I have no artistic skill beyond what I acquired in 1st grade. 
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Wow, those are beautiful! (Would not have thought Copics would work that well on leather.)
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Thanks for the kind words
The ease at which I can take a design and turn it into reality on the Glowforge is stunning.
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Gorgeous! Isn’t this the first leather beta post? At least, from what we have seen outside the beta forum. I happen to have an extensive collection of COPIC markers so I’m excited to see this.
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Quick question…you said the second one was hand colored…did you get the shading on the first one through leaving the masking material off? Or is it unfocused engraving? (Really like that effect on the leather.)
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I like the look of that too but I really have no idea how it showed up like that. I’ve really done nothing special to cause it.
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Squeeeeeeee! (Gonna have to buy some leather now too!)
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Do be careful though. My understanding is most modern leather is tanned with chromium which is not laser safe.
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Oh, I’ll buy the in-house stuff to start out with.
edit: (Or vegetable tanned if it’s not available as a proof-grade material.)
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Those look great! Thanks for sharing the inspiration!
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Just looking, I think that has the paper still on the design - which means if you like the look, you could remove the paper first to get that on the leather itself.
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Very cool! Both of these are executed nicely.
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Oh yes, i very much like the look!
(Could maybe do a second defocused pass after a partial weeding, to keep it contained to the decorative shape. Opens up all kinds of pozzibilities! Chuckle!)
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Very cool! Thank you for sharing that.
I have a thing for octopus. My favorite nocturnal sea creature. Finding one on a night dive is a goal.[quote=“Kallisti, post:9, topic:3132”]
The ease at which I can take a design and turn it into reality on the Glowforge is stunning
[/quote]
I can hardly wait!
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