My new manager loves everything Disney and just recently went on a Disney cruise. When she got back to work she had quite a heavy workload with a lot of new staff in store so I thought I would make her a coaster of something she loves and asked her which her favourite Disney charactre was (I didn't let her know what I was doing and she won't get to see this until Monday). I have found her to be a very good manager and extremely helpful so why not make a special gift for her knowing she will use it.
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Step 1: Designing the wavy circle
I opened up photoshop so that I could do something a little different as I wanted a wavy circle. I selected the create polygon tool and created a circle which was 900 x 900 pixels with 25 sides with a corner radius of 95 pixels with 95% star ratio and chose to smooth indents.
I saved my wavy circle as a png file and imported it into creative space. Once I had done this I selected trace and then deleted the circle image.
Step 2: Adding images & grayscale
3 More images
I imported all of my images and changed them to grayscale then Jarvis, I wanted to keep the images fairly light for the engraving so that they looked nicer when the engraved product was finished.
For the font I chose the Chilly Christmas which I got from Creative Fabrica, it's a nice font with a little love heart which I feel was befitting of Princess Belle as she was a character of the Beauty and the beast.
I outlined the images and the font so that the engravings could sit on the cut outlines. Once everything was positioned I combined all the cut outlines and then sat the images on top of them.
Step 3: Cutting & Engraving
Setting 1
Process Method
Vector Laser Engrave
Process Material
Red Oak Plywood 6mm
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
90
Speed(mm/s)
60
Lines per cm
100
Pass
1
Bitmap mode
Jarvis
Other Parameters
Air Assist.
Setting 2
Process Method
Laser Cut
Process Material
Red Oak Plywood 6mm
Power(%) or Cut Pressure(g)
100
Speed(mm/s)
4
Pass
3
Other Parameters
Air Assist
I had originally designed the coaster differently to what I ended up with as the original design didn't work out as planned so this is why I don't have photo's of the process as I forgot to take photo's of when I was cutting and engraving the one I ended up with.
Step 4: Adding Acrylic coating & gluing
Once the coaster pieces were finished, I sprayed some acrylic over the wood to prepare it for the resin so that the resin doesn't seep through the wood. I allowed the acrylic to dry for a few hours and then once dry I glued the cutout part to the base and let it set for around four hours.
Step 5: Preparation for resin & adding resin
When it comes to resin you should always wear ppe eg: nitrile gloves, mask and sometimes goggles dependent upon the resin you are using. I also add masking tape to the bottom of the coaster to protect it from getting any resin on the bottom.
I put a silicone mat on my bench to protect the bench from getting resin on there also. If you haven't worked with resin before, it gets very messy.
I mixed equal parts of A & B together and once combined properly I added a pink mica powder and then some white mica powder so that I could get it to the colour I was looking for. I had a pipette ready for the intricate areas of the coaster.
Once I had poured the resin into the coaster I pulled up the amount of resin I needed into the pipette so that I could place it where I needed it I then left it covered for one hour.
Once the hour was up, I wanted to add some little stars whilst the resin was sticky.
When I had finished adding the stars I covered the coaster for 24 hours so that the resin could set.
Step 6: Final Steps
The next day, I decided I wanted to add some paint to the sides to pretty it up a bit more.
When the paint had dried I then added a top coat of clear resin to finish it off. and allowed that another 24 hours to dry.
I then took the masking tape off and painted glue to the bottom of the coaster and added the cork.
One Tip also when working with resin; to get the bubbles out you can either use heat guns or blue flames but in this case I chose to spray rubbing alcohol instead, considering I was working with wood.
I hope you enjoy making this for a Disney fan in you family.
I opened up photoshop so that I could do something a little different as I wanted a wavy circle. I selected the create polygon tool and created a circle which was 900 x 900 pixels with 25 sides with a corner radius of 95 pixels with 95% star ratio and chose to smooth indents.
I saved my wavy circle as a png file and imported it into creative space. Once I had done this I selected trace and then deleted the circle image.
I imported all of my images and changed them to grayscale then Jarvis, I wanted to keep the images fairly light for the engraving so that they looked nicer when the engraved product was finished.
For the font I chose the Chilly Christmas which I got from Creative Fabrica, it's a nice font with a little love heart which I feel was befitting of Princess Belle as she was a character of the Beauty and the beast.
I outlined the images and the font so that the engravings could sit on the cut outlines. Once everything was positioned I combined all the cut outlines and then sat the images on top of them.
I had originally designed the coaster differently to what I ended up with as the original design didn't work out as planned so this is why I don't have photo's of the process as I forgot to take photo's of when I was cutting and engraving the one I ended up with.
Once the coaster pieces were finished, I sprayed some acrylic over the wood to prepare it for the resin so that the resin doesn't seep through the wood. I allowed the acrylic to dry for a few hours and then once dry I glued the cutout part to the base and let it set for around four hours.
When it comes to resin you should always wear ppe eg: nitrile gloves, mask and sometimes goggles dependent upon the resin you are using. I also add masking tape to the bottom of the coaster to protect it from getting any resin on the bottom.
I put a silicone mat on my bench to protect the bench from getting resin on there also. If you haven't worked with resin before, it gets very messy.
I mixed equal parts of A & B together and once combined properly I added a pink mica powder and then some white mica powder so that I could get it to the colour I was looking for. I had a pipette ready for the intricate areas of the coaster.
Once I had poured the resin into the coaster I pulled up the amount of resin I needed into the pipette so that I could place it where I needed it I then left it covered for one hour.
Once the hour was up, I wanted to add some little stars whilst the resin was sticky.
When I had finished adding the stars I covered the coaster for 24 hours so that the resin could set.
The next day, I decided I wanted to add some paint to the sides to pretty it up a bit more.
When the paint had dried I then added a top coat of clear resin to finish it off. and allowed that another 24 hours to dry.
I then took the masking tape off and painted glue to the bottom of the coaster and added the cork.
One Tip also when working with resin; to get the bubbles out you can either use heat guns or blue flames but in this case I chose to spray rubbing alcohol instead, considering I was working with wood.
I hope you enjoy making this for a Disney fan in you family.