I recently made tiny mosaic and turned them into rings. I cut out all the pieces using my Glowforge. In Pakistan, where i am originally from, trucks, buses and rickshaws are custom painted vibrantly. This has become an art form known as “truck art”. If you Google the term you will see many examples. Anyway, that art form was my inspiration behind these colorful rings. The center mirrors are also cut out from acrylic mirror sheets.
I cut out the small pieces, then used a plain base to glue all the pieces together. Once that was done, I grouted the pieces. Lastly I added metal ring. I have short videos of the process on my insta page @scarletscrollstudio
57 Likes
Beautiful! 
5 Likes
Amazing. I love seeing the international creations of this machine.
6 Likes
Really terrific pieces, amazing tiny pieces I might have trouble even finding after they were cut 
5 Likes
Thank you!
2 Likes
Thank you! These first few pieces of this kind were an experiment, but I am glad they worked out as well as they did. I have also used the Glowforge for other international design pieces such as Islamic geometric designs.
3 Likes
I used a thin piece of scrap wood underneath the acrylic sheets otherwise the tiny pieces would fall into the metal mesh to be lost forever. The toughest part for me was removing all the paper backing from those tiny pieces!
4 Likes
These are wonderful. I’ve also been using my favorite material, acrylic, to make earrings with different colors inset that just press-fit in. I love the process. Yours are much more intricate than mine…which looks very labor intensive. It pays off for you, though…very nice work!
4 Likes
Stunning! And a great selection of designs/patterns.
4 Likes
Have you tested cutting without the paper to see how well it works for your pieces? Or even just removing before cutting from the side that will be the bottom?
Alternatively, I imagine you’re probably cutting the whole design from a single color and then mixing them. If you use duct tape over the whole thing after it’s cut while it’s still on the laser bed and pull it out together, you should be able to get off most of the paper as you remove the duct tape. Give it all a really good rub before removing.
5 Likes
4 Likes
Thank you so much for your suggestions! I will def give these a try the next time I am making the designs. I guess when I got the shiny new acrylic sheets for the first time, I didn’t want to take any chances and waste pieces through possible burn marks, so I kept the protective paper on. But yeah it makes sense to give it a try now.
Oh and you are correct about the fact that I cut complete designs out of each color and then mixed up the pieces. I haven’t used a duct tape but I have used a painter’s tape to try and lift some of the tiny pieces out of the design to prevent them from falling below. It worked to a degree. I will be trying with the duct tape soon to see if it helps remove the backing…
Thanks again for taking the time to suggest great tips!
5 Likes
Wonderful work and the colors are just beautiful! The grouting is just the icing on the cake. I agree about removing the masking and you should give it a shot. I think you’ll be surprised how clean a cut you can get once you really ave your setting dialed in. . If I want to be really careful, try just removing the bottom masking. Even if that gets flashback marks, it won’t be seen and you’ve saved a lot of work.
6 Likes
I know what grout is, basically…but, can you explain exactly what it was that you did to ‘grout’ these?
2 Likes
Love this! Very beautiful.
4 Likes
So you know how when tiles are laid down on floors, grout, which is a paste like substance is put in the gaps in between the tiles. Just like that when mosaic tiles are glued down, there is usually a small gap that is left in between each of the pieces. Later on this gap is filled in with a paste called the grout. I bought my grout from hobby lobby. I cant attach a video here but here is a screenshot from the video where I showed how to grout the piece. The video is on my insta page.
10 Likes
Such a beautiful and unique take on things! I spent some time in the Philippines and they also pride themselves on their “truck art.” I wish we saw more of that here rather than boring trucks with non-inspired graffiti.
5 Likes
OK…thank you! You actually DID really mean it in the truest sense…so I do understand.
3 Likes
Oh gosh, what beautifully intricate work! I can’t wait to see what you do next!
4 Likes
WOW! And I hate putting together earrings… that would drive me bonkers, even with the beautiful result. Nice work!
4 Likes