I like that idea! The lacquer would also preserve the polish on the copper. I hadn’t considered that. 
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Yep…you’re right. It would prevent the copper from turning brown and green. Lacquer does a good job of bring the grain of wood to live. I used brushing lacquer on a large wooden art piece of these same woods, walnut, cherry and maple, last year, and it turned out great.
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Fear not, the remaining elements will find their way into future iterations! The days of shouldering my way into the hoards of desperate men gathered in the greeting card isle on Valentine’s Day are over.
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Amen Brother!!!
The card aisle is for Luzers. 
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You shouldn’t stop. Now it’s you selling your creations instead of buying something. 
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Door #2…definitely! Beautiful work!
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Great Idea! The kerf provides that opportunity.
I knew this community would improve on my vision! 
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Or, if you have trouble doing the wire, mix some mica powder (PearlEx comes in many colors including copper) with some resin, and syringe it in the gap (works better before you pull off the masking though).
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The wire I use comes from Home Depot
It’s standard electrical uninsulated copper wire. They have 16/14/12ga depending on what you need/want. Cheap too.
I keep telling myself I’ll get a mill to flatten it but a hammer (I have a nylon head one) works fine.
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Luckily, I have a fine Cavallin Italian rolling mill that has stood forlorn since I moved away from jewelry.
A couple of considerations beyond how the woods contrast and complement though.
The engraved message would not show as well on a background of walnut, both being dark - and the copper contrasts better against walnut than maple. 
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What if you used som LOS to patina the copper. Maybe not the whole thing, and not real dark.
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I love a good patina. Not a bad idea, a light stain on the metal is a reflection of weathering - endurance. I developed a method of airbrushing liver of sulfur onto the bronze belt buckles I cast. Did it when the metal is hot enough for the solution to sizzle, it reacts instantly instead of waiting for the patina to develop in a bath. Same with silver.
In my mind the bright of the metal is kind of symbolic of purity. I may go with a brushed finish instead of a polish.
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The enquiring mind wonders where copper have their livers… 
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Ok, I said I would make it out of whatever the consensus was - I lied.
A combination I didn’t show, and no one suggested struck me so yeah, sorry.
The copper on the maple didn’t grab me as much as the contrast of the metal on walnut, and the engraved text wouldn’t show as well on dark wood.
James sparked my imagination suggesting a copper wire inlay, so I explored that. Since I had the standard kerf from the cut, that was what first occurred to me. Using my rolling mill I rolled it out to fit, but it was so thin that it hardly showed.
That’s when I realized I could roll any guage wire out to whatever thickness I wanted. 
Since the technique would require cutting the surface flush, veneer wouldn’t do. Hardwood it is.
Tip: You can peel back the mask to see the grain and smooth it back down. Found a nice piece!
Backed up with walnut.
@whitetigertooth, I did appreciate your poetry, but my Son had mentioned this to me as something that struck him.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
Bonus -
A friend has a Birthday who is the cloud senior network manager for Oracle. So in a few minutes I was able to whip out something personalized that beats a commercial card on a fine piece of 
cherry hardwood. ‘Happy Birthday’ engraved on the back.
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Best choice! 
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I love 'em both!
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“The days are long but the years are short” is close to a quote in a Robert Heinlein novel “Methuselah’s children”
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Thank you. 
I’m in love with this machine.
@gernreich, I have no idea where he encountered it, but I find it to be true.
Stunning!
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