Laser Alpha Blingdala

Been seeing many of these layered Alphabets mandalas in wood. A friend just got back from Dubai and looked like the city threw up gold on her. The bling assault on my senses resulted in this.

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so after that, to atone for putting that out, I wanted to go Austere. So an ode to minimalism resulted in this

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while I was doing the alphabets I had a lucky accident. I put this mat black frosted acrylic and tried to engrave a leaf pattern on it. The file was supposed to be a cut file. I chose to engrave instead. I don’t know what I am doing to be honest. I used black medium acrylic PG settings and this is what I got. It looks and feels like concrete. Grey concrete. Why how? no clue.If anyone can shed some light on why it resulted in this please do. I also did not design the file. it was a dollar purchase on Etsy

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Don’t know, it might be the material, but that looks really cool! I’d do it again on purpose. :smile:

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Fun experiments! I have no idea about the acrylic, either.

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I have no idea why this made me laugh as hard as I did.

I love you project

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Love a luck accident! Nice projects. Love the bling. Mat black frosted acrylic…lots of potential there! Great stuff!

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Wow, that bling is amazing! I’d love to know your process.

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Gorgeous stuff, especially the first one!

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Here’s another on experimenting with acrylic. I haven’t glued the layers being lazy
As I am. So imagine a more finished product :slight_smile:

!(upload://jltdC2oMkPKI5SO0T4dd6Iw8u18.jpeg)

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Ask me anything you’d wanna know. This is the second thing I ever made on the glowforge so can’t really say I have a process. The first thing I ever cut was the same alphabet in plywood.

I don’t design files. I don’t how to.
I used proofgrade setting for all the acrylics used. Basically ordered 4x6 pieces of acrylic in every possible color and texture from canal plastics and cerulean tide.
The design has six layers. I did not have the golden acrylic but instead used yellow mirror acrylic which wasn’t ideal. Golden would be far more premium looking and subtle.
So what you see is essentially
Bronze mirror, yellow mirror, silver glitter Acrylic, then hidden layer clear acrylic then yellow mirror acrylic then rose gold acrylic and finally bronze acrylic.

There were perhaps more hidden layers that were solely there to add depth by allowing light to permeate from all sides and reflect on the mirrored surface.

Hope that helps.

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Welcome to the forum. It is obvious you will brighten up this place with some bling, innovation and serendipity.

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Welcome to the fun house! Nice work.

In retrospect, learning Inkscape wasn’t as difficult as it felt like it would be. When you can talk to your machine through your chosen design software a new door swings wide open, and your imagination is the only limit. :sunglasses:
Youtube is a great source for tutorials, for Inkscape “Logos by Nick” is a very good channel. Any time you spend learning design software will pay you back in spades!

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I really like the way you are combining the patterns and colors .

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image

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Whoa. Awesome

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Wow - they’re all cool!
This one especially makes me happy. Something about the colour popping in behind the cream wood. It looks like at least one of the layers is iridescent. I’m curious if the dark blue is a reflection of what’s in front or actually the surface colour of the acrylic.

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What a great first post and welcome to the forum! Your use of color is awesome and it looks like we share a love of acrylic. I love all your examples, but the clear/pink Z and the minimalist layered ones are my favorites.

If I had to pick just one material, it’d be Matte black acrylic. (It looks especially awesome paired with walnut. :slight_smile: ) You got such an interesting effect with it. Have you cleaned the engraving yet or was this pic straight out of the laser? It would be interesting to see a pic of the file you used, do you still have the link to the esty shop selling it?

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It’s off white acrylic and I think I added warmth to the pic itself. Not cream wood.

U are right on iridescent being a layer and two layers of blue separated by iridescent and a lighter blue

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Thankyou for the kind words.
Yes love acrylic
Just enthralled by how mixing it and doing different techniques can alter the perception of it .

I did not clean up (I’m guessing you mean sand down…) I did not do that because I loved the concrete effect so much I did not want to mess with it. I agree on the black matt acrylic. It just elevates acrylic as a material in a way no other color and texture does.
This was just an experiment but after seeing the concrete effect, I’d say I wouldn’t mess with black matt acrylic unless I was putting this effect in cause against the flush matt black this earthy contrast is delicious. Walnut would have to wait in line as contrast material compared to this but that’s just me.

I tried making my own ply out of white dyed veneer and now sitting in indecision about cutting it via laser cause I used titebond 3 in between each layer. not sure how that would cut.,