I really enjoyed your Making metal beads article in the March 2006 issue. I have a rolling mill and use it more and more to press cool designs into my Sterling silver sheet.

In your article, you show a very cool stencil being rolled through the mill. I was wondering if you could tell me where that stencil came from. I have been looking for laser cut paper stencils with small designs that would lend themselves to the rolling mills but have not had much success.

I would really appreciate any direction you can give me. Thanks for the great article.

Hi,
In the intro to the Making Metal Beads article I explain that I was using a computer graphics program to create my own patterns which I then fed into a laser cutter.

The computer programs I used were Rhino and Adobe Illustrator. Laser cutters can be found at Reprographic firms that do work for architects and industrial design firms. Also many architectural departments at colleges have laser cutters, they use them to make their models.

I don't know of any commercially produced stencils of this kind. That is why I suggest using other cutting tools. I have also created some excellent stencils using chisels and punches.
Nanz Aalund
Associate Editor
Art Jewelry Magazine

Rain had a very similar question to mine.

Nanz,
If Rhino is the CAD program you use, what type of laser cutter do you use?
Is it one you own, or do you send out your graphics to be laser cut.

Thanks.

Dear Rain,
I used the Rhino software to create flat patterns, It was the software I was most comfortable with having used it for 3-D design for the last 8 years. I was also working at the time to create 3-D forms with the patterns using rapid-prototyping equipment.

Rhino wasn't needed to be able to feed the pattern into the laser cutter and I actually had to save my patterns as an adobe illustrator file to import them into the laser cutter. Which is an option available in the rhino program.

The laser cutter I was using was the property of the University of Washington's Architecture Department. I had access to the equipment when I was a graduate student and then as a faculty member when teaching in the Metals department of the School of Art at the University of Washington.

There are reprographic firms that service the architectural industry that have laser cutters and to have your own patterns cut it would be best to find a firm and ask them which software they prefer to guide you.

cheers,
Nanz