Here's a mini portfolio I made recently. I will be using it to send out to select companies as self promo.

I believe presentation is super important. It has to be something that will stand out on someone's desk and interesting enough so one wants to open and explore its contents. As I love working with textiles, my design involves a simple sleeve of organic cotton canvas.

Outside is screen printed in fluorescent pink with houndstooth pattern, my website and short text describing my style. The interior is lined with mid weight, bright lime cotton. The sides are left raw for a natural, frayed look. As I have plenty of snap buttons, I used these as my enclosure.

Inside each sleeve is a series of 4"x6" photo prints of my projects, short self intro and business card.

I've tried laser cutting the exterior artwork, but it does not compare to the visual impact of bright pink ink. The entire process took much longer than expected. I had a hard time screening on the canvas, usually needing 2 passes of ink instead of just 1, which usually results in too much ink and less refined lines. The sewing took an entire day to make 24.

I already have a new idea for a different design that will be much more time efficient to make. Looking forward to that once this batch is used up.

Took a 2 hour Laser Cutting and Etching SBU class at Techshop yesterday morning. The class was very interactive and hands-on, covering fire and safety precautions and how to set up and use their laser cutting machine, specifically their Epilog 60 watt, 1 of 3 machines.

I am making a custom case/sleeve out of organic cotton canvas to put a portfolio sample in as self-promotion. Here are several tests on 2 pieces of canvas. The class gives you the basic knowledge, but ultimately each machine and material requires some testing of the correct parameters for the laser, affecting quality and how much material is burned off. I use back and front of the canvas and sometimes have different settings for top and bottom halves. This is not what the final artwork is supposed to look like. But I test different size fonts and line weights and can adjust my artwork from these results. Note the darker brown is due to more heat from the laser and on some areas it was enough heat to burn/cut all the way through the canvas.

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