Upon walking inside the Fab Lab, you would never guess that you were walking into the third oldest building on campus. The space houses laser engravers, 3d printers, electronic cutters, an electronics room, a milling room, embroidery machines, and more. The possibilities for creation are endless.

Our class split up into groups, each utilizing different tools in the space; my group started out with the laser engravers. We were directed by Jeff Ginger, who was super friendly and approachable.

This was the first time I had ever seen a laser engraver, and it was absolutely fascinating. However, before we got to touch the laser engraver, we worked on the computers to find images that we wanted laser engraved on small Moleskine journals. Nerdy me took a screenshot of the sheet music to Chopin’s Tristesse to put on my journal. We took these images and put them imported them in Inkscape to put them in the correct format for printing.

Although the sheet music was a bit off-center, I am still really pleased with how my journal came out! Unfortunately, I love it so much that there is too much pressure to write in it now.

(I enthusiastically made this my Snap Story seconds after its completion)

After completing my first journal, I got a little too excited and stayed after class to make a second one that was two-sided this time. I made this as a gift for my best friend’s little sister’s birthday who is a huge Harry Potter fan.

After seeing how quick and easy it was to create a polished product, I want to look further into the possibility of starting my own Etsy shop for laser engraving journals, phone cases, etc. As we learned with 3D printing, people love the ability of customization, so my shop would provide customers with that option.