Laser Cut Acrylic Rose with Etched Base

Hello everyone,  I made an acrylic rose display piece for a loved one. I was lucky enough to have access to an Epilog  laser cutter at the time. If I were to win an Epilog  Zing 16 Laser,  I would start a small business making sculptures, jewelery, and other cool and unique things.
When I made the rose I didn't have any plans drawn up. I went more by how a rose looked and what felt right. Feel free to use rose reference photos if necessary.  My list of materials are as follows:

1 sheet of 1/16" clear acrylic ( size of sheet depends on what fits in the laser)
1 acrylic rod 1/4" cut to the length you want
Heat gun
Heat gloves
Safety glasses
Needle nose pliers ( to hold the petals while you shape them)
1 sheet of 1/8" mirrored acrylic
1 sheet of 1/8" black acrylic
Black spray paint
Weld on acrylic glue
Glue applicator syringe
Laser cutter/ engraver
Computer with CorelDraw program

 With any project, please be safe and use appropriate safety equipment when needed.

   I first started by creating some petal shapes that varied slightly, in CorelDraw. I then sent the file to the laser cutter and cut them out.

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Laser Etched Beads

A couple weeks ago I made a laser etched baseball, and ever since I've been stuck on the idea of lasering into other spherical objects. Etching round wooden beads into to tiny globes occurred to me as an interesting challenge.

In this Instructable, I will explain how to use the rotary attachment for the Trotec Speedy 300 to make extremely detailed etchings around beads. The pictured beads include globes, beads with numbers and words spiraled around them in continuous lines, and some with monkey to man evolution images. I have lots more ideas for images that would look cool etched onto beads (coming soon - Death Star Beads). I'm sure you've got some ideas too - put them in the comments!

Take a look at this video to see 108 digits of Pi on a 3/4 inch bead. 

I am planning on making a lot more of these, experimenting with different materials, and producing some finished jewelry. Winning a contest or two would definitely be a good start. VOTE FOR MY BEADS.

Jewelry Contest
Epilog Challenge Contest

If you think these are cool but don't have access to a laser etcher, visit my Etsy store, smallworldbeads, and support my TechShop habit!

I made it at TechShop.

techshop.ws

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