Simon Frankau's blog
A frame for my cross-stitch
So, some time ago, I did my Head Over Heels cross-stitch, but I never found a nice way of presenting it and protecting it from the elements. No standard picture frame would fit. And now I have a frame!
Work has a "Makers Lab", and my original plan was to use the little CNC milling machine to make the appropriate shape (a hole on the front and a recess on the back). Fortunately, an experienced guy turned up, and advised me it would be slow and a relatively steep learning curve to do that (I should start off with playing about with other stuff using foam first, to get experience). Instead, I was pointed back to the laser cutter.
I was already going to use the laser cutter to cut the window, from some spare 3mm transparent acrylic. So, I broke the rest of the design into a set of 3mm layers, and laser cut some 3mm ply for the frame shape plus a stand. I stuck it all together with copydex (probably the wrong adhesive!), and this is the result.
I really am pretty happy with it. I considered painting it, but Caroline rather liked the raw laser-cut look. This now sits happily on my desk at work, where no-one has expressed the slightest interest. There we go.
Posted 2015-11-21.