Mounted Laser-stenciled Posters

A lifelong maker and a member of Artisans Asylum since 2019, you might find kraemer toiling on a project in almost any shop at Artisan's Asylum. He's worked as a scientist, an engineer, and a teacher and is now trying to make it as an independent educator and artificer. He lives in Somerville with his two amazing kids.

Unless you have deep pockets, large, high-contrast, free-hanging signs aren't an affordable option for your message or event. This class will change that, and let you display your ideas in big, bright colors. We'll use Artisans' tools and freely available software to design and create posters that are clear at a distance, hang securely from posts or trees, and even stand up to moderate weather. Each student will bring home a poster designed in class, mounted on a handsome reusable frame.

Higher-level goals of the class are to orient students with three of the shops at Artisans' (the digital fabrication, spray/finishing, and wood shops), and to spark new ideas about how students can integrate methods and tools from different disciplines to design and make unique projects.

This class consists of four sessions. Each teaches and applies multiple safety practices, shop skills, and design principles used in different shops and for different materials, including digital stencil design, spray stenciling, measurement and layout, and design and use of templates and jigs. Attending all four sessions will be key to executing the project in the future.

The materials fee for this class is $50. This is separate from the ticket price and is to reimburse the instructor for any tools or materials used in this class. This will be paid once, directly to the instructor at the start of the first class meeting. This instructor accepts payments in cash or through Venmo.

• Get oriented in Artisans Asylum's finishing shop and learn to use the spray booth.
• Learn three key material principles for spray stenciling.
• Introduce students to Inkscape, a free vector graphics editor.
• Use Inkscape to learn and apply three key principles of stencil design.
• Create a unique digital design that can be used for a multi-color poster.
• Convert the design into a set of stencil files.
• Get oriented in Artisans' digifab shop.
• Learn key principles for how to operate the laser cutter safely.
• Use Lightburn and the laser cutter to import and cut your stencils.
• Spray-stencil one of the class's poster designs to take home.
• Get oriented to safely navigate Artisans Asylum's wood shop.
• Learn three key principles for safe, effective, and accurate drilling.
• Learn how to safely operate the drill press.
• Layout, fabricate, and use drilling templates.
• Finish and assemble posters and frames.
• Present posters and share new ideas for multi-modal projects.
• Perform tool tests for laser cutter and drill press.

• Folder of printed handouts with instructions, diagrams, photos, questions, and room for notes
• Good heavy poster board
• Spray paints
• Stencil leads
• Plywood frame components
• Fasteners
• Sandpaper
• Epoxy
• Varnish

• Only a pen or pencil is needed.
• Closed-toed shoes are required to enter the building.
• Thumb drive handy; used only in sessions 1 & 2.
• Laptop optional; used only in sessions 1 & 2.
• Eye + ear protection are required for sessions 3 & 4.

This class requires basic English and computer literacy, but no advanced skills are needed. Students must be 16 years old or older. All students under 18 must be accompanied by and under the direct supervision of a responsible adult.

Learn more about our class and ticket cancelation policies here.

Please email [email protected] with any questions.

*Sales end 24 hours before the start of the class to allow the instructor and staff time to prep.

Host or Publisher Artisans Asylum Inc