I enjoy making decoupage laser cut wood jewelry using origami paper so much so I shared the tutorials on how to make them. One tutorial is for using laser cut wood blanks. The other makes use of a laser cutter to speed up this process.
 
I had put some of those designs for sale on my CraftaGems shop and sold some. Then came along, Kari who asked if I could do a custom order for her book club members. What a fantastic memento! So I naturally said yes.

First she sent me the image of the stack of books they had read. 


I digitally removed the background, leaving just the stack of books. I used a high resolution printer at my local makerspace to ensure the images were sharp. Regular printing is about 300 dpi, adequate for most documents. But this printer is professional grade, delivering 2800 x 1440 dpi for very crisp results.
 
I alternately placed some of the images upside down to save space and reduce the amount of paper used. I also made sure I printed extra, just in case, errors occur during production. They did and I was glad for the extra.
 

These turned out much sharper with vivid colours compared to home printers. Notice I added a black border around each image? This avoids any white should I slightly cut just outside the images.  


I used pre-sanded 3 mm basswood and stained the sheet black. I like using Saman water based wood stains. I don't want to breath in chemicals before or while I am laser cutting.


I did some experiments and found I preferred a spray sealer like Mod Podge's Matte sealer. Spraying avoids streak marks. I sealed the stained part of the wood sheet first. Then I glued on the images on the unstained side with Gorilla Glue's heavy duty spray adhesive. After the glue was set, I then sealed all the images with a few coats of the Mod Podge sealer.


Over on my laser cutter, the xTOOLM1, I placed my prepared cutline - an outline of the stack of books with a hole - several times in order to cut out the shapes. I found that I had to do two passes of the laser to ensure that the decoupaged wood can be cut through cleanly. Lining up the cut lines by eye to the images was sometimes tricky!


Once the pieces were cut out, I hand stained and sealed the edges with a water based varnish also from Saman and a tiny artist's brush.


Once everything was dry, it was time to put on the earring findings.....


And pack them up for sale and shipment to the book club. I also laser cut my earring cards!


This particular stack of books was such that the earrings had to be 1.75 inches long in order for the text to be visible. I have made the listing active for anyone who wants a custom book club order! A minimum order of 10 pairs is required.

Did I have fun? Yup!


Before You Go:

jewelry making supplies

Disclosure 

This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
 ______________________________ 
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM