Way back in 2008 I started adding letters cut out of copper sheet to my pieces. I've kept a journal for most of my life, and many of the thoughts therein wanted to come out onto my artwork, so it seemed like a pretty natural way to go. Since I've always been very hands-on, I cut all of these letters out by hand with a jeweler's saw. Super labor intensive. This piece below is an example, the words follow the branches (a bit hard to see, but you can enlarge the image by clicking on it):
No one said it would be easy
but no one said it'd be this hard
but look we've come this far
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"No One Said It Would Be Easy"
Copper, enamel, brass, mixed media
46x53" |
The good news is this year I found a wonderful man, Bob Powell (sales@meadowcreature.com), who lives close by to cut all those letters out for me with his water jet cutting equipment! I created a file in Illustrator and then he translated it into a DXF file for his use. Here's a picture of the first sample that he ran.
These letters are just under a half inch tall, so the detail is amazing. My wrists and cutting arm are so thankful!
