Engraving & rastering a photo onto wood

The Enquiry - Tramway

Tramway, a renowned international arts venue in Glasgow, approached us to create two engraved art pieces for an installation they were exhibiting. The project by Ifeoma U. Anyaeji was showcased from the 18th of March 2023 and called Ijem nke Mmanwu m (The Journey of my Masquerade). The installation itself revealed Ifeoma’s technique of turning non-biodegradable plastics into braided art, the wood engravings sat aside to compliment the main installation. Ifeoma U. Anyaeji uses African Hair Threading as the central feature of her installation. Tramway requested we mirror this in the wood engravings, using varied engraving depths we enhanced the hair to highlight the braids.

Challenges

There are some challenges associated with engraving a photo onto wood

• Design - The photo quality itself being a suitable design for engraving
• Manufacturing - Before production commenced, extensive testing was necessary to ensure the desired result was achieved
• Time constraints for production
• Delivery - finding a solution which would protect the design from being damaged in transit

Solutions

Design

The photo which is chosen to be engraved needs to follow a certain criteria to enable for the best results

• Quality of photo - high definition is important
• The bigger the contrast between light and dark, the better

Testing

The client wanted to achieve a deeper engraving on the braided hair which meant that we had to test various settings and methods to achieve this. The end result was achieved by:

• Performing 2 passes of the laser
• The first pass focussed on the overall photo, while the second pass focussed solely on the hair
• Many settings were tested to achieve the final result

Time Constraints

The arts industry quite famously has tight timelines and this was no different. From enquiry to delivery, we were given two weeks for production. Due to the size of each artwork, and the necessary for multiple passes (when the artwork is engraved more than once) each artwork took over 8 hours to engrave on our largest flatbed laser

Delivery

After spending so much time on the designs, we were intent on getting them to the venue in pristine condition. A dedicated van was organised and the artwork was packed between hardboard and wrapped in bubble wrap for extra protection.