This month’s posts isn’t technically astounding, but it certainly is fun!  We are in the holiday season here, and that means parties.  These personalized swizzle sticks add a touch of class, and will make a great gift for a friend who has a penchant for old fashioned mixed drinks!

Creating the vector for these was pretty simple.  I used the MFC Diamant Monogram which we purchased awhile ago for a job that never came to fruition.  It’s a great, classically styled font which shapes the two initials into a diamond.  For this project, I separated the initials, and used them like a left and right flag, one for the shorter low-ball glasses, and one for taller highballs.  To make them more sturdy, I stroked the rasterized letter.  This allowed the middle curly bit to touch the side, creating an anchor.

For the stick, I thought about doing a triangular shape, tapering down to the end, but I felt that would be just too many wedges in the finished piece.  I created a line 1/8 of an inch (~3mm) wide, which, when using 3mm thick material, makes the “stick” part a square.  To finish it off, I stuck a small rounded rectangle at the bottom, diamond shaped, to act as a “paddle” for better mixing.

If you’d like to make your own, I found a good stick length for the low-ball glasses is between 3 and 4 inches, with your design added on top of that.  For the highball, 6 – 6.5 inches of stick was about right.

I was a little concerned about the brittle nature the acrylic sometimes has, but 1/8 inch is thick enough to allow some flex. The test cut went perfectly, so we made a full set for our friend Baz – and a few extra for fill out the sheet of plastic we have.  That just means more friends, right?!