Maker Challenge Day 25: Filled Wood Engraving

Engraving is great, but as yesterday’s post showed, it can look a little boring, especially if the laser engraves without much burning, leaving the material close to its original color. I’ve been playing around with ways to fill in engravings with color, and lately I’ve been testing out nail polish, acrylic paint, and a combination of the two.

This particular iteration is all nail polish. A thin layer of a pink nail polish gave me the color I was looking for. A UV-curing topcoat sealed and protected the design. Overall, I’m mostly happy with how it came out. For future attempts, I’ll have to be neater with the nail polish. I’ll also make sure I have sandpaper ready to sand down any patches that need cleaning - the sandpaper I have at home is great for finishing, but much too fine to sand off the color that leaked past my masking tape.