Ersatz Canyon Panel

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“Ersatz Canyon,” a 55×33” wood panel, began as a collage of canyons in Alaska, Arizona and Utah: I combined the best of the plant life, walls, and water in each place into half of the canyon drawing, digitized it, mirrored the halves, and cut the panels with my laser cutter. I used bookbinding stiches to sew the final structure. The final piece hangs just away from the wall to create additional shadows reminiscent of the movement of water.

The process for this CAD-CAM design included:

  • A digital photo collage with mirror symmetry
  • Raster digital drawing with my Microsoft Surface and pen
  • Vectorizing the drawing and dividing into parts smaller than the bed of my laser
  • Cutting from 3mm / 1/8″ Baltic birch plywood with my Boss 1416 65W CO2 laser
  • Assembling with thread (hand sewing) and treatment with Danish oil finish
  • Building a custom shipping crate for the folded piece

Here’s the digital collage, draft drawing and assembly:

2019 Ersatz Canyon panel digital collage