Sweetie by Stephanie Jonsson

Casting plexiglass prototypes of the word “Sweetie” to be cast into candy with silicone molds and then used in a performance video piece. The word sweetie was cast into candy as a medium because it is both sweet and delicious and desirable. But too much can be bad for you. I used a gross amount of candy, which is sickly sweet. The word sweetie is much the same way: it lands differently when your partner calls you sweetie as opposed to someone in your place of employment, especially when there are other power dynamics involved like gender.

For this project Stephanie needed a crisp line for their prototypes, and CNC would not do, Stephanie didn’t want a grain line as wood would leave. The letters on top of the Sweetie needed to protrude and that could only be achieved with the laser cutter.

MATERIAL:

¼ inch Plexiglass

CUT/ENGRAVED: Cut and Engraved

CUTTING/ENGRAVING TIME: It took about 10 minutes for each layer of plexiglass, Thicker layers required 7 – 10 passes with noticeable defocusing as the cut became deeper.

FILE PREPARATION: I made the file in black and white in Illustrator with a red line for cut lines around the file and saved as a .AI file and then opened the file in Trotec.

SETTINGS USED:

Trotec software settings –à Standard process mode, 333dpi, None Cut Line, Black and White Half tone

Material Template settings-à Plastics, Acrylic casted, P 100.0, V 40.00, ~1000 for engraving

                                          à Plastics, Acrylic casted, P 100.0, V 1.00, ~5000 for cutting

NOTES: The material (plexiglass) off gassed and so much cutting made for a smelly environment.