I approached  luthien_nightwolf about six months or so ago about doing some laser etchings of her artwork, much like I had with several other artists at the time. Having been a fan of her work for quite a while, it had--like many of the artists I contacted--been a huge source of inspiration for my writing, and I wanted to thank her in some way for having done such amazing work.

Though I wasn't particularly expecting any response from her, Luthien absolutely blew me away by not simple sending me one, or two pieces to etch for her, but four! I was floored. It really was a true honor to feel as though I could be trusted at a time where I was absolutely unknown in the community. While--at the time of writing this--I'm still relatively unknown, I'm glad that Luthien gave me the opportunity to stretch my wings with this set. It really did give me a lot of confidence in myself that I really didn't have going in.

Throughout the process I was able to keep in constant communication with Luthien, and she even suggested that I try doing laser etchings on things like trinket boxes, and jewelry boxes. Having agreed to let me use this particular image as a test platform, I have to commend Luthien for her inexhaustible patience with me in getting her order filled.

In all honesty, this print (not the one pictured but in general) was an absolute nightmare to work with, in the best possible way. This print taught me so much! It is the embodiment of the reason why I have nothing but appreciation for the skill it takes to create such images. This print went through about 10 different iterations before I finally got a good, high-quality piece that I was satisfied with, and looking back on it now, I still feel as though I could do it better.

This piece was insanely frustrating, but I enjoyed every moment of it! If it meant learning something new, I'd gladly go through it all over again! Thank you so much Luthien for giving me this piece to work with; had it not been for this piece, I would never have learned how to fine tune my machine to such a level as to bring out the intricacies of such work!

About the Piece:

This piece started life as the lid of a small wall plaque (I think 5x8) but due to the quality of the wood, it failed catastrophically, to the point that subsequent reprints rendered the material useless.

At the suggestion of Luthien, I moved onto a trinket box that I believed was made of better quality wood. It wasn't. If I remember correctly I had to print over a failed print on this box because I was unable to sand it, due to metal decorations on the corners. That print never finished.

After that box I tried a larger box, and a jewelry box, both with the same substandard outcome. MY mother decided to paint the larger box after Luthien agreed to let me keep it, and it turned out fairly decent, though it still didn't meet my standards for quality. The jewelry box was a disaster, but I did find out that the material was the largest contributing factor with this iteration. Cheap plywood does not make for good quality prints. (It was at this point where I decided to use only bass wood from walnut hollow for these prints.)

Which brings us to this print. Even this print was a failure to begin with. I think I had to do two, or three reprints to get this piece to the level of quality Luthien's art deserves, and even after getting a successful print, I found out later the damn thing was crooked on the material. Thankfully, that is a minor issue that doesn't effect the final product, and I'm glad to say that Luthien was very happy with the final product.

As I said earlier, I would gladly go through that level of frustration all over again to learn something new for this craft. Thank you again Luthien!

Now, if you would like to view the original image, or enquire about getting your own piece of art from her, I can highly recommend  luthien_nightwolf because of the wonder level of skill and quality she puts into her work. She's a wonderful artist and I greatly look forward to working with her again in the future!