Heavy Metal - Retro Mechanical Labs

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Retro Mechanical Labs (RML) from Portland, Oregon, is a long time client of John's. John has been laser engraving RML's distortion boxes for years now. They met through a series of events that are rooted with both being fans of Nine Inch Nails. RML was 6 by 6's first official client and is definitely one of our favorites. We've mentioned them before here on the blog and a few of their distortion box photos live in our gallery. 

Photo by Retro Mechanical Labs 

We laser engrave blank powder coated distortion boxes and panels in various depths and widths. We remove any residue from the engraving process by hand. It can be a bit tedious but completely worth the delicate effort to show off the amazing retro industrial artwork of RML's designs. Powder coating has a distinctive look that I personally developed a love for growing up with a working auto body garage in my backyard. 

An overhead view of freshly engraved distortion boxes and panels for RML.

Each distortion box is built by hand. They share a lot of their process on Instagram. Building boxes to drilling holes manually. We wish we could do some custom metal cutting for them. That requires a plasma cutter, which is on our company wish list. 

We've visited the RML shop in Portland, Oregon a few times. They're always busy and have the most interesting vintage gages that find new lives in custom pieces that they create. An amazing process for amazing products.

You can see the final products and demo clips on their site. 

Laser and love - Thea

Demo Sign - The Lettermate

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A few months ago Kimberly from The Lettermate contacted us hoping we'd do a small project for her company. Some simple trade show signage. It was a simple job and the end result looked great!

We actually had the opportunity to meet Kimberly in San Francisco at the Renegade Craft Fair at Fort Mason. She was so super nice and her show display looked awesome. (I unfortunately do not have those photos handy at the moment.)

We were totally thrilled that she hit us up again for a large scale version (15" x 12") of her product for teaching purposes in her instructional classes! Oh, in case you're wondering what exactly The Lettermate is, its an awesome hand lettering tool for addressing snail mail envelopes. We will be picking up a couple for our own wedding next year. A few of you fellow Pinterest junkies might have seen The Grommet sharing info about The Lettermate.

Like our work - The Lettermate is made in the USA!

We love projects like this! It doesn't hurt that the lady behind The Lettermate is pretty stellar too! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Coming Soon From Our Friends At Bread And Badger!

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As I've mentioned before, one of the best side effects of being in the laser cutting business is doing work for friends! We're so excited to share a couple projects that we recently did for our friends at Bread and Badger!!!

Bread and Badger - Ornaments & Pendants

Bread and Badger's sandblasted mugs, glassware, jewelry and gifts - feature some really fun designs. Probably most notable is their "I like it here" state(s) design. I actually bought John a Washington State "I like it here" travel mug. He drove up from Oregon every weekend for a few months before we got engaged. As a couple, John and I have a shared love for their work. Also, the family behind the company are some pretty cool people. 

They've also been a part of the PNW maker scene for quite sometime. I've often vended at the same shows with them with my other business. Their brand is very familiar to me and my friends. I know at least 3 people with the narwhal glass. Because everyone needs a narwhal glass! I considered it a complete honor when Bread and Badger asked us to manufacture a couple new products for them! Pendants, ornaments and magnets! Featuring many of the their most popular designs.

We laser cut and engraved their designs into this beautiful lightweight (fantastic smelling) USA alder wood. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for their launch on their site. Also this is a great opportunity for me to remind everyone that while we can do engraving on glassware, we prefer not to. It's just not our area of expertise. We recommend Bread and Badger for your custom drink ware needs. They are top notch. 

Lasers and love - Thea

Ugly Baby Shower Art and the great people behind it

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It's no secret that we manufacture items for Ugly Baby Shower Art. Unique floss holders, greeting cards, ornaments and wall art signs. However, the truly unique product that carries the shop's name is shower art. 

Ugly Baby Shower Art - Roller skating unicorn embroidery floss organizer. 

Ugly Baby Shower Art - Roller skating unicorn embroidery floss organizer. 

What is shower art. Read this. And this. You're going to want to put that on your resource list for gift giving ideas for the person that has everything. 

Recently, a big tutorial site posted a tutorial for a how to make shower art. When something so unique is invented, it's bound to be copied. The hope is it wouldn't be exactly like the original and a different take on it would be produced. In my opinion that tutorial failed doing that. However, the amazing couple behind Ugly Baby had a brilliant response to the tutorial. Many fellow makers have shared this and we'd like to do the same here. 

While She Naps - Abby Glassenberg : WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE MAKES A TUTORIAL FOR YOUR SIGNATURE PRODUCT: A CASE STUDY OF SHOWER ART 

Lasers and love - Thea

Stem

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Recently we had a great opportunity to do some custom work for Stem a company based in Millbrae, California. Stem creates solutions that are changing the way energy is used and distributed. More about the amazing things they do are available to read here. Pretty fantastic.

We were asked to create a large company sign for their corporate headquarter's office. They chose bamboo as their material of choice for the sign. The results were fantastic. 

Photo by Stem, Inc. 

Photo by Stem, Inc. 

Photo by Stem, Inc.

Photo by Stem, Inc.

We're tickled to see our work out in the wild. But this one is a little bit more special due to the company it was for. 

Lasers and love - Thea