*FINAL UPDATE 5/4/21*
Its finished!. Unfortunately my side panels were the slightest bit too small and the lamp base won’t fit in completely 🙁 It would be tedious to re-cut all these panels and refinish them, so I am keeping it how it is for now, until I can get a smaller base! It looks awesome though. I am still very happy with this.
*UPDATE 4/26/21*
I have successfully engraved two panels of my piece and created the top! I took great advice from Sameer, Iris, and Kat. I decided to have a different Kanji character on each side. Strength, Happiness, Love, and Courage. I inverted my original image so the white parts would be engraved, rather than the black. Lastly, got some tips on positioning and using bounding boxes in inkscape. I am very pleased so far and cannot wait to finish these up!
Hello! I have been excited to start this project since the beginning of class. Here is what I have. I am working on sizing still, but I am thinking of 5x8x5in.
The design will be engraved on each of the rectangular panels, deep enough that the light from inside will shine through. I will need to play around with that. My backup plan is to simply laser cut the image after some tweaking, then applying a thin plastic on the inside to diffuse the light.
Hi!
What color(s) do you plan to use both for the box and the dragon but also the light?
Hey! For the box i’m sticking to birch plywood and leaving it as is. The top of the box (triangle) i’m using red acrylic. The dragon is not going to be painted so it’s just going to be an open cut or a raster engrave! The light is the exact flame LED professor showed us during class 🙂 Hope this clarified.
Hi Marcella,
Will you be using the same image for all sides? One idea could be to have a different kanji character on each side. I really like the dragon and your idea to use colored acrylic, can’t wait to see how it turns out!
I was thinking of doing the same image. Now that you mention it, a different character on each side sounds awesome. Thank you so much for your input!
Hi! What is your plan for connecting the 2 sections of the piece?
Since the top acrylic piece will just be a closed 3d prism, I am going to glue the two sections together by the perimeter of the bottom of the triangle piece!
Hi! This lantern is really well thought out and I am so excited to see the sides glow when the light is tuned on. Have you thought about how the black in your dragon image will end up being engraved away and therefore light? I was thinking if you wanted the scales to stay white and the darker parts to stay black you could try inverting the picture before rastering it and adding an outline all around the dragon (so the whole panel is not rastered away) and the effect would be a light outline around your whole design.
Thank you! You may have just saved me a headache trying to get this how I wanted it! That is exactly what I was aiming for a wanting to do, Make the light come through the white parts rather than the black parts. I really appreciate your comment 🙂
Hi! I really like this idea! Are you planning on engraving the whole dragon with the same power? Or different powers for different levels of light?
I am planning on just one power!
Hello! I think a different color per side might look really nice!
The dragon is really cool. What raster power did you use to make the light shine through?
Hi Marcella! I notice the colored roof of your lantern. I love how the red roof draws attention to the light that shines through the dragon! This looks amazing.
This piece is amazing and I love how the detail on the dragon design came out. Where do you plan to keep this? Have you thought about adding some sort of fixture at the top to have it hang somewhere?