Stencil Postcard - UPDATE: It Makes It Through, Sort Of

Instead of writing a couple of addresses, just cut them out. This way you can just send a piece of wood and your buddy won't mind that it doesn't literally say anything. The material speaks for itself. Besides, sending an old-fashioned message is what email and IM and text message and cell phones are for.

Or burn it out. I grabbed the nearest stencil font I could and dumped in a couple of addresses in Illustrator. I then sent that over to a laser cutter and after a few tests with the material I cut out the whole thing. If you do this, it's important to reverse the stencil since the wood can get charred. I could've tried to clean it up a bit, but I like the burnt effect in there so I left it.

Do people really click through the other images? I just wanted to highlight this macro photo and looking at the finished work doesn't "do" anything really. But it is fun to do.

I was hoping to talk to a postal employee about the postcard before I mailed it, but no such luck. The line was long so I went to the automated machine instead. A 63-cent debit from my card and I had a sticker for official stencil travel across the lower 48. Now to wait and see if it makes it.

The postcard made it through, but not in one piece. Oddly enough, it split in a vertical line and not along the grain. I think that it was going through a curved mail sorter and couldn't make the turn.