Laser Cut Raccoon Portrait

Here's my latest fun little project. The other week, while sorting through my ever expanding library of woodworking magazines, I was absolutely blown away by the cover of the November 2007 issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts. It showed an amazing scrollsaw image of two raccoons in a tree, cut with incredible precision and detail. So what's my first thought? Hey, I wonder if I can laser out that picture to fit an 8x10 frame. It wasn't easy, but here's the end result:

Since I was recreating this on a smaller scale, I needed to use a much thinner material than the recommended 1/4" stock. I decided on 1/32" (0.8mm) thin Baltic birch which was thin enough to mount into the 8x10 walnut frame you see above. Altogether, it took 1019 cuts to create the picture. After the laser cut the pieces, I still had to poke them all out since very few actually just fell out on their own. The title and corner decorations were also engraved directly onto the piece. The whole thing was then mounted into the frame with a nice black background behind it.

Even though I spent quite a few hours on it, I have to admit that I'm quite pleased with the results.