Laser Cutting ~ My Aunt's Fishes



Stupid pandemic...

Everyone is tired of being stuck at home. Okay, not everyone. I'm actually quite content. But that's another story...

My aunt is particularly tired of being confined to her apartment. So one day over virtual Scrabble, I told her to draw me something and I would figure out a way to turn it into a laser project. After a couple weeks of pestering, she finally sent me this:






Yikes! With all that really cool shading and multiple colors, I wasn't sure what to do. Eventually, I decided to trace her drawing in Adobe Illustrator, making nice clean lines. I then cut a background out of translucent green acrylic (approximately 8.5 x 6.25 inches) and inserted fish I cut out of translucent yellow acrylic. During the process of assembly (prior to peeling the acrylic's protective backing) I squeegeed a mix of black acrylic paint and spackel on the surface to accentuate the etchings. The piece is designed to be hung in a window; when light shines through, the fish are really quite vivid.

Here's how it turned out:





But I felt that I wasn't quite done with the project. So I formulated a new approach...

This time, I converted the original drawing to a high-resolution bit-mapped image. I used this to etch various colors of anodized aluminum. This process abrades the metal's protective color layer, revealing the bare metal below. This produces a negative image of the original. I then used a jeweler's saw to carefully cut out the fish. I then mounted the metal on the green fish outlines that were cut from the frame of the previous piece. However, before mounting, I cut a small hole in each and inserted a powerful magnet. I then etched the bubbles and frame on a sheet of blue anodized aluminum. The entire piece (also measuring approximately 8.5 x 6.25 inches) has embedded mounting magnets so it can be attached to a flat ferrous such as a refrigerator. Then, each individual fish is its own removable magnet.

Here's how it turned out: