Generating and Laser-Cutting Unique Snowflake Ornaments
Bleeptrack came up with a neat way to make dozens of unique snowflake ornaments without spending much money.
The oft-repeated factoid that “no two snowflakes look alike” is inaccurate — or at least misleading. In reality, snowflakes often look identical under moderate magnification. That’s because they’re crystalline structures that grow like fractals based on the seed structure and the weather conditions under which they form. So two snowflakes that form under the same conditions will often look alike. But Bleeptrack wanted her snowflake ornaments to look unique and she happens to have a background in generative art. So she developed software to generate unique snowflakes that she then laser-cut to make ornaments.
Snowflake shapes lend themselves very well to generative creation, because they exhibit radial symmetry and their crystalline structures resemble fractals. Bleeptrack was able to program software called Fr0zenSystem that automatically generates snowflake shapes based on random seeds. It generates new snowflakes almost instantly, so the user can keep refreshing until they find the shape that pleases them the most. Bleeptrack was kind enough to upload and host the open source Fr0zenSystem software, so you can generate your own snowflakes right now if you’d like. After you find the snowflake that appeals to you, you can download it as an SVG file that is perfect for automated tools.
Fr0zenSystem actually generates pairs of snowflakes to suit the ornament design that Bleeptrack envisioned. The “inner” snowflake is white, while the more skeletal “outer” snowflakes are a dark color (like blue). That creates a nice contrasting layered look. The SVGs files make it really easy to laser-cut the snowflakes. Bleeptrack used a heavy translucent paper, but you could use whatever material you like. Even the lowest-power laser cutters can handle paper, which makes it an ideal material. If you don’t have a laser cutter, you could also cut the snowflakes on something like a Cricut craft cutting machine.
Fill up a couple sheets of paper with different snowflake designs to create a whole blizzard of ornaments for beautiful holiday décor!