After we returned from school, we took the children’s designs for backgrounds and started to create them to take back on the next visit. After looking at the children’s designs, we knew what type of materials and colours they wanted so we collected waste materials from our homes. Due to our group having to cut a variety of shapes and materials for the children’s backgrounds, we decided to use the laser cutter to ensure we produced a high quality piece of work for the children.

Within our first session in the workshop, we drew the different shapes that were needed for the fabric on plain pieces of paper. This part of the production was fairly simply, as we looked at the backgrounds the children produced again and the shapes used were very basic. One member of the group then scanned these into 2D design so during the next session we could use the laser cutter to produce the shapes in the material. As a non-DT specialist, this experience in 2D design has been very educational for me as it has allowed me to experience a different way of designing other than just drawing on pieces of paper. This experience I would take to the classroom as it can help show the development of children’s designs and the processes which are needed when designing a product.

In the second session, our group used the laser cutter to cut the pieces of material to the shapes needed to create the backgrounds. Using the laser cutter was a first time experience for myself and I found it quite simply to use once the process had been explained to me. This part of the production does also have links to the computing curriculum as well as the DT curriculum as it focuses on the creativity of children and aids them for the future world we live in. Once all the material we had been cut, we had to find a solution that would stick the material to the card to ensure it was secure. We tried a variety of materials such as double sided tape, PVA and glue stick but we felt as a group the PVA was the best solution. However, when looking back at the backgrounds after they had dried, some of the materials had been ruined a bit by the glue when we thought it would dry clear. This therefore demonstrates that before choosing a final solution to stick the material down with, we need to trial a few to see which would work best and leave the materials unaffected in their appearance.

Using 2D design to cut materials on laser cutter

2D Design

Our group working with the laser cutter and 2D design

Controls on Laser Cutter