so i've made my first laser cut! for the most part, i'm pleased with how they've turned out. it's saved me a ton of time cutting the pieces myself, keeps the paper flat in a way i couldn't do with scissors, and obviously it can make very intricate cuts that would be hard for me to achieve by hand. the bad side effects? some curves have a weird tooth-like grooved edge that's not too pretty. i've taken a nail file to any convex curves, but the concave one's are a little harder to reach. the paper also has burnt edges. this doesn't really bother me, because the pieces are going to be painted anyway, but they reek of bacon! and not in a good way!
i took photos of the first cuts. i had room on the 36" x 24" page for three complete pieces and one full character from another. check out all the funny little shapes that will make up one simple image!