These are beautiful! I will have to go out to the shop and look around for some to practice on. I think they would make very nice pet memorial markers.
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Oh, that’s a great idea, since my wife is a Veterinarian, we could offer that as a service at the hospital…
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We do cremains in blown glass at the hot glass shop I play in if you want something else to add to the services list 
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That residue can be cleaned off for much better adhesion.
Thanks for the font name!
I have a few glass blower friends who do this too. They make little beads or pendants with them. I love the idea, though I know that it grosses some people out.
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I plan to do this for some Christmas presents, make some coasters. I had wanted to make the engravings darker though. I had originally planned to use Cermark, but since the Travertine is so porous, I wondered if it would work. I also thought of just using paint after the laser burned away any masking. Did you try any of this?
Also, did the GF leave any burn marks on the Travertine? I had chosen Travertine because I have half a box left over from getting kitchen done.
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Yes, they do break easily. A year ago, we resurfaced our backyard in travertine tiles, using four pallets full. Out of that, there were about 32 pieces (of different sizes and shapes) that were broken and unusable even for smaller spots. Many of the broken pieces were where the manufactured had jammed pieces of wood in between the bundles standing on edge, to keep them from moving in the pallet.
So we contacted the local manufacturer to get replacements, but were told that we could not get replacements if: a) the boxes were open, and b) we did not have the broken pieces sorted out and puzzle pieced back together to prove how many broken tiles were in the box we were returning. They also said that 10% breakage is something we should have factored in anyway. (Our breakage out of the box was much less than that.) After much discussion back and forth about the ridiculousness of this policy, they let us purchase replacements in the sizes and shapes and quantities we needed for 1/2 price. I was just happy to get out of there with what I needed and not more in order to finish the project.
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so decided to make a few custom coasters for our conference room at the lab. @bruceaulrich, The detail is amazing… it holds an extremely fine line. This is reverse engraved and looks so sharp!
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There’s even room to get even sharper results by scoring the edges of those outlines, too, I bet!
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Most of our stuff are larger vases or art pieces in lieu of an urn sitting on the mantlepiece that looks like it’s got grampa in it.
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Good idea Henry, looks great! I need to get some of those.
Once again you inspire! - and provide settings 
AWESOME!
They are insanely cheap. It was 9 tiles for $5.69… These are probably cheaper than if they were made in Proofgrade Acrylic… And let me apologize to whatever GF employee gets this PRU that there is now marble dust all over it inside…
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I’ve done about a dozen and no burn marks, no masking. Hadn’t considered using masking for paint on travertine so I haven’t tried. The rock exposed by the laser is pretty crumbly, however, so I’m not sure how great of a surface it will be for adhesion. That said, some black paint would pop.
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Oh, nicely done!
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I would think about brushing out the engrave out good prior to painting.
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Thank you Doctor!
You have to wonder how the can quarry it, cut into tiles, ship a heavy stone and retail for that price.
It will help, but you’ll brush through to the bottom before you find a good surface.
I’m surprised. I haven’t used these, but I have a travertine table that is not soft at all. It has a ‘ring’ to it that reminds me of a vitrified material like china.
It is ‘soft’ though, like marble is soft.
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IDK. I tried five different types of travertine tiles and one was tough while the other four were soft. I’m not saying paint wouldn’t stick, or it crumbles like a Tums, just that it’s not an ideal surface.
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