Matchy Matchy Laser-Cut Leather Bow Ties!

projectinspo
#1

Note: I have been reading the forums non-stop since Oct 2015, but this is my very first post…

I have a family wedding coming up this weekend and the groom is super into bow ties. I am too!
The groom likes bow ties enough that the wedding invitation actually said “bow ties preferred”. Nice!

Anyway, I decided a long time ago that I wanted to make a select few family members matching bow ties.
However, my Glowforge Pro is delayed (still), so I took matters into my own hands!

I designed a bunch of bow ties using Adobe Illustrator and sent the final files to Ponoko.com
In case you don’t know, Ponoko is a 3D printing, CNC machining and laser cutting service.
They do great work, but they are EXPENSIVE!
I was able to fit 6x bow ties (various sizes) on their 181mm x 181mm sheet of 3.5mm thick veg tanned leather.
The final work piece looked like this:

Finished Piece from Ponoko 03 - Pic.JPG4032x3024 501 KB

In case you are wondering what this service costs when you don’t yet have your Glowforge, here you go:

Fast forward through some sewing and a lot of hot glueing…
Voila!
Bow Ties - All 02.JPG4752x3168 386 KB

Note: each bow tie is slightly different. I customized the name on each bow tie as well as the little picture between the text.
Also, I sized the bow ties according to age (adult size -> 5 years old -> 3 years old -> 8 months old)
Here are some close ups:

Jason's Bow TIe.JPG4752x3168 354 KB

David's Bow Tie.JPG4752x3168 306 KB

Dean's Bow Tie.JPG4752x3168 257 KB

Parker's Bow Tie.JPG4752x3168 272 KB

Haiden's Bow Tie.JPG4752x3168 271 KB

Hope you all like them!
We are going to look GOOD this weekend!

Jason

P.S. It would be pretty awesome if GF decided I am worthy of a pre-release unit…

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#2

Thats Awesome!! Thanks for sharing! And welcome to the non-lurker side! :stuck_out_tongue:

#3

ItsBeautiful.jpg480x626 83 KB

#4

What a creative design! Excellent job, and welcome to the Light! :sunny: :grinning:

#5

Nice work, and great idea!
Thanks for joining us :sunglasses:

#6

Please post pix (after the wedding) of the folks wearing them. What a great idea! :smile:

#7

Thanks for jumping in the conversation. This is a great contribution to the forum. I love the custom design that, from a distance, doesn’t look custom. I’m looking forward to seeing photos of them in use.

#8

Those are FANTASTIC!!

#9

Love, love, love it! Such a nice design job, and it’s very helpful to know the Pocono costs. I hope this is just the first of many posts from you!

#10

Using their names as part of the design pattern is brilliant. From a distance it looks like a nice geometric hash pattern. Up close and you see it’s personal. Really nice!

#11

That is absolutely delightful! I did something similar for the holiday party in plywood… but more tie, less bow.

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image.jpg763x632 140 KB

#12

Dude… You made a wooden tie. A tie… made out of wood.

#13

How about living hinge ties in wood? But Dan’s is way, way cooler! :sunglasses:

#14

oooooh, inspiration: a tie made out of wood, and for the pattern: randomly-placed holes in the shape of termite-bites surrounded by engravings of the termites eating the wood. hm…

#15

And are those Glowforged earrings that I spy there, adorning your lovely lady? :sunglasses:
Tres, tres chic!

I really like the hinge bow ties, never seen those before…I need to try to pull that off for my brother for next year.

#16

One gotcha with the living hinge ties – they are relatively short-lived. Our local makerspace printed cut some ties as a test and although they are amazingly supple, they snapped in half pretty quickly. YMMV depending on how much you let admirers play with them.

Good eye – was going to ask about the earrings too.

#17

I actually bought one of those longer living hinge wood ties a couple years ago to give to Brian.
…(I wonder whatever happened to that thing? I don’t remember actually giving it to him…hmmmm.)

Anyway, I can soon make a new one.
Might even sprinkle a few of these on it, just for grins. :smile:

#18

Love it! I am crazy about 18th and 19th century-style naturalist illustrations. I could see getting a really nice Isoptera illustration and engraving it on a tie…

#19

My ex-husband is a spider biologist, so I actually have a spider species named after me: sisicottus cynthiae (wow! I was just checking the spelling online to see that there’s a wikipedia entry for it! wooo hoooo! https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisicottus_cynthiae) So, maybe I’ll engrave some of my species drawings into something someday.

Though, I used to tease my ex-husband - spider biologists spend a lot of time drawing spider genitalia. So, a lot of my species drawings are spider-porn!

#20

That’s kind of cool…(Having a species named after you, not the porn part!) ROFL!