Thanks. So it must be artificial abalone. In Vcarve you do something similar but with angled cuts - female and male which is not possible with a laser cutter.
I would like some of that wood. How do I get some of that wood?
Is there a reason that a laser would not burn through real abalone? It neatly cuts through everything else.
Abalone shells, like most others, are essentially rock, composed of calcium carbonate.
I’ve never worked with them but would never have assumed they can be cut on a GF…
It is super thin stuff
Come to think of it, someone has posted designs with it - earrings I think?
I remember looking it up on Amazon…
It was @amandarogers808
Successful crafting business in Hawaii
I bought some at the time. Just didn’t try it yet.
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That was it!
If I knew anyone with pierced ears, I might have tried it myself!
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The product is real Paua shell, just micro thin and adhered to an adhesive backing sheet.
Koa is lovely wood. I am interested too!
I love Koa!
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Aloha Dan! We’ve done some really wonderful stuff with our Glowforge and some Hawaiian Koa wood. If you like, we’d be happy to send a couple of pieces to GF for you guys to play with.
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YES! Sounds fabulous.
So the Glowforge is creating a pocket and you adhere it to that?
Actually you can. The laser is not cutting a perfectly perpendicular slice through the material. Thicker material will show the slant more than thin (try mating 2 pieces of acrylic together at a right angle and you’ll see right away). But this is often used to good effect for inlays - flipping the inlay over puts the widest part on top which makes for tight fitting inlay joints. Lots of posts about using the technique here including some from @evansd2 and other inlay gurus. 
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I call it “flip mating”, if you want to search more specifically.
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I need to actually get the glowforge here first and see this for myself.
Yep, I’m in!
So interested!! Where do I sign up?
Super Interested, living in Alaska good woods are hard to get. We have a lot of connections to HI and I would love to make a some pieces with a bit more Aloha in them.
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Yes indeed! We visited some years ago and learned about the meaning of Koa and purchased a small piece then. Would love to get a little more.