A New Experiment - Foil

Based on the technique shown in this post Interesting gold leaf technique I decided to take a dive off the “why not” deep edge, and give it a go with some scrap acrylic.


First I had to wait for the leafing adhesive to dry…took a lot longer than the 30 minutes quoted on the bottle.


Since it was a clear acrylic, I decided to use a colored leaf for more contrast. This is about the time I had the thought that maybe this should not also be my first ever leafing project of any kind, but too late for that.


I believe this is the point in every Glowforge experiment that we all know as the “watch anxiously and pray” moment.


Well, that’s my first acrylic engrave done. Time to clean it up and see what it looks like!


The lines are pretty fine in some spots, so part of it isn’t easy to see in this picture, but all in all it could have been worse. Definitely had some mishaps with the foil itself there on the right, but as I mentioned before, it was my first time doing ANY leafing, so with that in mind, I’m just happy it turned out as well as it did. Certainly worth playing with a bit more.

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Interesting combo of materials. Thanks for the write up and share.

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I’ve never leaf’d on acrylic, but generally you’d use way less glue (which would make it dry faster). Just a thin enough layer so you can see it :slight_smile:

Love the design!

That’s a good tip, I’ll keep it in mind for the future!

And my boyfriend made a brilliant discovery: since the material is clear, if I had reversed the design, it’s still perfectly visible and shiny from the back side, without the texture disruption on the right or the foil discoloration between what was under an engraved section and what wasn’t. Definitely another thing to consider for future projects…(especially as it adds a protective layer over it automatically, which is nice).

Definitely worth playing further with!
Also check out Laser Foil. I’ve used it on acrylic and wood with excellent results. It’s expensive, but awesome.