Tile Etching At The Westerly Library

So, I run the Makerspace at the Westerly Library (a non-profit library in Rhode Island), where we’ve been experimenting with the Glowforge we added about six months ago. I keep meaning to get some pictures posted of the various things our community has used the machine for - Working on tiles has been one of our more popular uses, so it seems appropriate we start with a retrospective of those projects.


The first project we worked on was a granite trivet… it came out alright, but we had used a corner of our actual material for test purposes, so one corner looked a little different from all the others. Now we know to tell folks to bring multiple pieces so we can do tests before we try and make final runs on expensive materials.

Our second project was a set of 4x6 tiles for family gifts - You can see them below, in the early engraved version.

And after we’d used some sharpies to get a better contrast between the finished surface and the engraved design.


Despite my urging, the patron working on the tiles didn’t want to experiment with colors. The black acquired a bit of a washed out look in the areas where the engraved lines were thicker - I think because the magic eraser was able to pick up a bit of the ink before it had uniformly stained the underlying part of the tile.

Just a week or so ago, we did a “meet and greet your makerspace” with our library board. For them, we did a variety of much smaller tile engraves (I think the squares are just under an inch on each side), with some pieces I’d picked up from Home Depot.

The board members, as you can see, didn’t mind experimenting in color, and really put together some amazing multi-toned pieces.

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You have a very artistic board! :smile:

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Best way to keep growing your space is to engage the board members. Well done.

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Yes, that thistle piece is really lovely. I like the bicycle too.

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It’s wonderful for people to have access to a machine like the Glowforge.

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