GlowForge Laser Cut Jigsaw Puzzle using Alcohol Inks and White Acrylic Plastic

A while back I discovered another puzzle-artist blogger, 3 Cat Max, that uses alcohol inks to dye her acrylic. I thought the outcome looked awesome but never considered doing anything like that myself. I mentally shelved any sort of involvement with the inks and stored the idea on my dusty subconscious shelves. As my problems have continued to grow with the paper-based puzzles, my dreamy brain has been looking through the shelves and filing cabinets seeing what else I could do.

I stumbled across a neat watercolor-looking galaxy background the other day on the Creative Market site and my creative energy was sparked again! What if I could replicate that neat cosmic look, add my own engraved images and lettering, and slice that up as a puzzle? Or even as some cool frameable artwork?

The initial design that came to mind was to use the galaxy design as a background for a personalized name puzzle. I could use the alcohol inks on acrylic to create that cosmic look and add a name in the middle somehow.

I ordered some alcohol inks, some thicker 1/4″ acrylic, drew up a puzzle idea, and got to work! I practiced with a piece of white acrylic first to make a purple, blue and pink design. I then painted a second piece of acrylic with pink paint and glitter to use as an accent for the name pieces.

For the puzzle pieces, I drew those in Adobe Illustrator and added unique pieces that felt special to me. In the puzzle world, those are called figurals or whimsy pieces. I added an alpaca, a cat, a music note, the shape of Michigan, a paintbrush, a paint tube, my signature hello fairytale wand, and a martini glass for good measure.

This morning I had the chance to test out my design on the pieces of acrylic I dyed and painted earlier in the week. The end result is exactly what I was envisioning! A truly unique piece of artwork turned into a fun and playful galaxy name puzzle. I can truly see myself making these cool puzzles for others. I think they would make sure a cute and fun keepsake gift!

Details: Puzzle is 85 pieces, and about 11″ in diameter. The letters that are higher than the puzzle was my attempt as seeing what it would look like if it was double thickness. Jury is split on that one.

Materials: Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink, Pinata Ink, 1/4″ white Acrylic, Kamar Varnish to seal, UV Protectant Acrylic, GlowForge Laser

Read the full writeup at: https://hellofairytale.com/failed-puzzles-alcohol-inks-and-renewed-creative-energy/

Видео GlowForge Laser Cut Jigsaw Puzzle using Alcohol Inks and White Acrylic Plastic канала Hello Fairytale by Nicole Heath