Oasis Name Badge

First of all, I'd like to give a shout out to Millie. If it wasn't for her, we never would have met the people at Oasis Hair Salon (Cobble Hill), and in turn made some wonderful business contacts.

As such, one of our first projects for Oasis was a set of name badges for everybody. This was a fun little project, and easy to put together. The badges were made from gold-on-black microlaminate acrylic, laser engraved and then cut, all in one step. All that remained was to install the pin on the back. Needless to say, they were very well received. :-)

Moraine Lake on Tile

After seeing how well the tiger tile turned out, I decided to push the limits of what I thought a laser tile was capable of. This scene of Moraine Lake in Alberta, Canada, after being converted to a grayscale image, had an excellent tonal range. Everything was there, from the bright white clouds to the dark crevasses and shadows in the mountains.

Overall the image turned out rather well. Though the tile is capable of being engraved nearly pitch black, doing so to get darker shadows merely darkens the entire image. In the end, I had to strike a balance between brightness, contrast and detail. Any lighter and the clouds would have completely washed out. I think a picture of a blue cloudless sky would have enabled me to bump up the brightness and contrast of the whole scene for a picture perfect tile engraving. Next time...

Fun with Laser Tile

Every once in a while I come across a product that just impresses the heck out of me. Such is the case with Laser Tile. This product is specifically designed for laser engraving. It's available in two colors (Birch White and Vanilla Cream) and three different sizes: 4.25", 6" and 8". As you can see in the picture, the results are simply amazing. High resolution photos are perfectly captured.

What makes this product so different from standard tiles is the unique laser sensitive finish embedded into the tile itself. The satin finish is the only distinguishing characteristic that might keep you from mistaking it for a regular ceramic tile. Once engraved with the laser, a nice, richly detailed image is your reward!

Though I haven't tried it out yet, an Italian Laser Tile is also available. This comes in a nice earth tone and engraves with a Sepia finish.

The applications for this are endless. Imagine an 8' wall mural mounted above a luxurious spa tub, or accent tiles around a fireplace, or risers on a staircase. Hmmm...

Laser Carved Butterfly Pendant

After some experimentation, I came up with this sweet little necklace that proved to be very popular at our last Christmas Craft Fair. It's a 3D engraved butterfly carved into a piece of cherry wood.

What makes 3D engraving different from standard engraving is the variation in depth. Some parts of this pendant are carved shallow, others a little deeper. This is controlled partly by the artwork, and partly by the laser's control software. The artwork itself is not just black and white, but also several shades of gray in between. The darker the shade, the deeper the engraving. The trick is to run the laser at low power and engrave in several passes.

Here's the result: