Five Questions: Elza Simpson is lasered in on Thanksgiving

Elza Simpson was always interested in technology. He would cook up plans and designs from a young age, and his father would provide the parts to make them a reality. He spent his career working in web design, but after he retired, he cast about for a new hobby to scratch his intellectual itch. He found it at Loveland CreatorSpace, making Christmas ornaments, wall decorations and all manner of other knickknacks with a laser engraver a piece of machinery that burns or cuts into materials like wood, stainless steel, and around this time of year, pumpkin pie. Simpson has been burning images and messages into fully edible pumpkin pies that he shares with family and friends, as well as a handful for organizations like the Loveland Police Department and Loveland Fire Rescue Authority for a few years, ever since he discovered the concept while browsing the internet for more ideas on how to use CreatorSpace’s laser engraver. We caught up with Simpson about his hobby and what fascinates him so much about lasers. 1. How did you first start doing this? Well, a couple years ago I was searching the internet. Looking for ideas and stuff. And I came across somebody laser engraving pies and thought “Well, I’m going to try that.” I started out with little ones, and they came out okay, so I tried bigger ones, making them for family and friends, and then a chaplain with the police department wanted one so I made one for him. This year they ordered seven, the police department and the fire department, so I’ll be doing some for them. 2. Have you always been a crafty kind of guy? Well I was always designing stuff. Growing up it was all electronics, designing electronics and stuff. And then once I retired, I was looking for something to do. We moved to Loveland, found CreatorSpace and I took their laser engraving class. It just blossomed from there. Now on my Etsy shop I sell a lot of Christmas ornaments, last year I sold about a thousand of those. 3. Talk more about the kinds of things you did growing up. What kind of things would you design? Like I said, I started out with electronics. My dad was into electronics, and he’d say “OK, design this.” And he’d buy me the parts to make it. Once of the first things he had me design, I was in the Boy Scouts with the Pinewood Derby cars and the racetrack. Well we wanted something to trigger the start of the race, time it, and figure out who got first second and third. That took me about two weeks to figure out. Nowadays its so simple. Back then it was all relays, all mechanical. 4. Is it more difficult to engrave food than other materials like wood? Figuring out the power settings is totally different than wood, the power and speed. But yeah, food is a little harder. But it’s safe to eat, because all it is, is heat. It’s just making that portion a little more well done than the rest. There’s no chemicals involved at all. 5. What kind of challenges does food introduce that wood or metal wouldn’t? It’s kind of hit or miss on how well they turn out, because you know, the consistency of the pie, whether or not they’re kind of sunk in, ones that are a little more level are better. I’ve been wanting to try chocolate, but I think if it got a little too warm and melted, they’d get upset with me. (Laughs). I’d have to put it on a pan or something, but we could figure it out.
https://www.reporterherald.com/2025/11/24/five-questions-elza-simpson-is-lasered-in-on-thanksgiving/

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