tugrik

One thing I wanted to do but didn't have time for: large scale tags for fursuiters. The problem is that I can't easily cut the aluminum stock I have and maintain a good anodizing job unless I spend far more than I'd want to charge. The next best thing would be a multi-tone laminated plastic, so it'd still be a stiff tag but I could laser-cut it to any size and shape.

One of my roomie's friends really, really wanted some done, though... enough that he was willing to pay for the raw materials up front with the known risk that they might not be done in time for the con. He got lucky! The material arrived today and I had some lasering time free while the last big print jobs were running. He came over at about 7pm and we kitted them together in no time.

These are made of a laserable material called "lasermax". It's a form of laminated plastic with metallic dyes embedded in some of the layers. The laser cuts away the front exposing the color of the layer below. Then one cranks up the power and cuts through all the layers at once to cut out the design. For these two badges I had red-over-white and brushed-gold-over-black. I've now also got blue-over-white in stock; a handful of other colors can be ordered. This particular material is 1/8" thick so it's just about perfect for a fursuit badge or tag. It's available in 1/16" as well, and I may have just found a source for thicker styles too.

There's no real time to make more tags for this particular convention, but now that I have the power settings and a supplier, I can easily do them for AC and other future cons. For tags of the size in this post (6" x 4") I'd charge $20 or so. I'd have to quote it on each job depending on how much time had to be spent cleaning up the artwork. Keep in mind that any shape is possible; we just did the dogtag-bones for this order. :)

I'll try to get one or two more done as samples later tonight. You can see them at the photo-shoot area on Friday and Saturday if you're curious to handle one and possibly order for the next con!