Project Nine

Now I've written this assignment out 3 times now so something weird is going on with brackets. So I here I go for hopefully the last time. This was a really cool project to work on. I thought it wasn't to difficult and it ended up with a really cool product.

Digital Fabrication?

Before I get into the details of actually doing the project I should answer the question that you posed to me. I think that vinyl cutting certainly is digital fabrication. The reason that I think it is that in order to actually have anything vinyl cut, I need to design something digitally on a computer. So if I am designing something digitally and then fabrication it. It sure seems like it is digital fabrication to me.

Getting an SVG

Starting this project I was a little bit concerned because it seems like a creative project, and I felt I would stuggle to come up with something to actually put on a sweatshirt. However I was fortunate that when I went into the fiberlab I had on a shirt that had a phrase on it that I'd like to have on a sweatshirt. It was a Groot quote, so I decided to put a photo of groot underneath. Once I had that done I needed to just combine the photo and my phrase into one image using the software that is available in space.

The Machine!

After I had the design made I just had to set up the machine so I could run it. In order to do this I chose a white vinyl and clipped it into the machine on the right side so that I could have it clipped with three tongs. I then moved the blade so that I wouldn't waste alot of vinyl. Once everything was in place I checked the settings to make sure everything was set up for the right kind of vinyl, and I started cutting.

Peel and Press

The process is kinda in the name. I took the vinyl over to the table and started peeling. It all came apart pretty nicely accept for the fact that I completely forgot to take the smile hole out of his mouth. Once everything was all peeled I put it over my sweatshirt. Took it over to the press, and I pressed it onto the sweatshirt, and now I have a new custom sweatshirt!

Me in the Sweatshirt

This is a photo of me in the sweatshirt.

You could click here to download the files I used.