Stamp Out War Wooden Banner
Instruction
Since mid-2022, I have been running the charity project Stamp Out War: Support Ukraine! that aims at raising funds for Ukraine relief effort through philately. As the paper poster hinging on the back of my bicycle for this project was nearly worn out, I was looking for a new banner made of more durable material to promote the project in my daily life. So I came up with this laser-engraving and cutting project that makes use of plywood and acrylic. Overall, the whole design can be adapted to various projects with an appeal to world peace.
I started this project by drawing the main graphics in Photoshop. This graphics showing a peace dove flying in the sky will later be laser-engraved on wooden plywood. Once completed, I converted the image to .svg file for easy manipulation in xTool Creative Space. Textual elements and the sun in the background were saved as different canvas.
The laser machine start by engraving the main graphics to the wooden board. Once done, the cutting process follows.
As the project references to postage stamps, the contour is cut into a shape that resembles a traditional stamp.
I choose to use colour acrylic to make the name of the project and the circle representing the sun in the background standing out. Reusers can experiement materials of different colours and qualities (opaque vs. transluscent, mirror vs. regular, etc.) to achieve the desired look.
The colour elements were designed to fit the holes, but to prevent them from falling apart, I chose to use Gorilla glue to strengthen the bonding between the plywood and the inlay.