Laser Cut Bowls
An extraordinarily simple, yet interesting gift for the extended family. You may have seen similar bowls at craft fairs or gift shops selling for $30-$50 a piece. The actually cost to make these, however, is closer to 3 dollars. So, naturally I made 6 of them and gave them out to friends and family for the holidays. The bowls are super simple in concept, start with a shape, then cut a series of offset rings out of wood, stack in desired configuration and glue it all together. Voila. These bowls are also great for holiday gifts because they pack flat (before gluing), making them very easy to transport across the country.
Required Resources: 10 minutes, $3
Size: 9" x 9" x 3"
Materials: Baltic Birch Plywood
Tools: Laser Cutter
New Techniques: In order to make the replicate gifts a little more interesting, I used a couple different shapes as my base pattern for the offset rings. Ultimately, I think I liked the classic wave rings (picture to the right) the best.
Lessons Learned:
You Can Lead a Horse to Water.... - Something that surprised me was that of the 6 bowl patterns I gifted, only 3 were ever converted into actual bowls. Along with the nested bowl pieces, I gave each person a little bottle of glue and some instructions on how to glue the bowls together. My thought was that everyone might enjoy a tiny woodworking project, and might appreciate their bowls even more if they had a hand in making them (Also, I was exhausted from cutting boards that year and did not have the energy to finish the bowls back in California.) Well, I was wrong. Some of the recipients saw the final glue up stage as too much of a chore (ahem Mom and Dad) and left unassembled flat patterns in the closet to collect dust. It may be 3 years since the original gifting, but I am slowly making my way around to finishing the bowls for people. So lesson learned, people like gifts that don't give them extra work. Noted.
