Lasers, the bubonic plague, and the bird men

So, in my first post, i mentioned that i was often messing around with laser cutting and 3d printing. Today, i just briefly wanted to show off one of the things i have laser cut. A lot of people believes that you can only cut or engrave flat objects like cardboard or wood sheet, but i am here to show otherwise :)

Here you can see a mask i made from leather. It is meant to resemble a plague doctor mask, that i am making for a DND costume. For those who don’t know, the plague doctor were hired in an attempt to slow down the progress of the bubonic plague. They were typically hired by the cities, and went around visiting the victims, doing a bunch of weird experiments in an attempt to cure them. Of course, this didn’t work at all. The “Doctors” were often not doctors at all, as the city would hire anyone willing to take the job.
Anyhow, the doctors wore a suit made mostly of waxed leather, as it was believed that this would repel the plague. They also wore a beaked mask, which they filled with aromatic items like vinegar or lavender, as some believed that the plague was caused by “Bad air”.

Below you can find a few of the pieces before being sewn. As it is an old project, i unfortunately do not have too many pictures of the project.

I made the mask out of recycled leather, which i scrapped from an old couch that i found in the rain. I would like it to have been black leather, but i’m a student, and beggars can’t be choosers. So for now, this is only a proof of concept, as i wanted to test out how well the leather cut on a laser cutter. The eyes are made from laser cut acrylics, and the pieces have been saddle stitched together by hand (Stabbed myself in the hand while doing this, which is not to be recommended). In the future, i want to iterate on it further, as i would like it to have a slimmer, more crooked beak, but that will be for version 2.0.
For now, this has been a very nice first project. If any of you want to laser cut leather yourselves, you should cover the surface with painters tape, as this help make a cleaner cut. Also, you should wash the edges with water, as they otherwise will smell like burned flesh (Quite literally).

have a great day people :)
Emil