How to Turn a Hand Sketch into a Wearable Bowtie!

The weather may be cold, but advent calendars are now open and the countdown to Christmas is on! If you’re anything like us, you love making Christmas presents for loved ones. You may already have a sketchbook full of present ideas, but you’re not sure when you will get around to making them all. Why not let robots do the grunt work? You can get started laser cutting faster than you think.

Our friend Marcel made this bowtie directly from a drawing in his sketchbook. After doodling the bowtie on paper with a thick black marker (keeping in mind any area we don’t mark will be cut away) he scanned the design into Adobe Illustrator. Then, using the “Live Trace” feature, he converted his drawing into lines our laser cutter can follow, and voila! Robots did the rest of the work for us.

Check out the materials you have to work with here, and then go ahead – draw your Christmas presents this year!