These bookends are the first “finished” thing I’ve created with our new Glowforge. I started out with the Harry Potter book nook, but quickly realized that it was going to be a super long-term project, considering how detailed it is and how bad. I was craving an easy, quick project that I could look at and feel accomplished about, so last night I designed and cut these.
I think I was largely inspired by the aesthetics of Big Bud Press (an ethical, vintage-style clothing label based out of LA). I absolutely love their bold use of colors, shapes and lines.
Especially since this was my first lasercut design in years, I cut the file I made in Illustrator on Glowforge’s proofgrade medium draftboard first to test it out. It fit well, so I went straight to using these lovely frosted Colorhues acrylics from Delvie’s Plastics. These were the specific acrylics I used:
- Outer curve: Wisteria ColorHues Acrylic Sheet
- Middle curve: Glacier ColorHues Acrylic Sheet
- Inside curve: Carribean ColorHues Acrylic Sheet
- L-shape: 2447 Translucent White Acrylic Sheet
I have to give a shoutout to Delvie’s – their selection is really great, I feel like their prices are fair, they answer questions and ship really quickly AND they’ll cut pieces down to the 12″ x 20″ that fits in the Glowforge bed (just request it in the comments at checkout). 🙂
I think I used the settings for Glowforge’s medium proofgrade acrylic and it cut great. I glued the acrylic together with e6000.
Something I didn’t realize until it was too late was that the Colorhues acrylic is only frosted on one side, so I have one frosted and one glossy bookmark (oops). I still love how they turned out though! Creating these practical, pretty everyday objects is one of the main reasons I wanted a Glowforge. 🙂
Update: My plan was to add these rubber feet from Delvie’s to the bottom of the bookends to keep them from sliding, but when my order came in and I tried them out, it didn’t really work (the weight of the books would still tip the bookends outward). What I ended up doing was cutting/glueing a piece of 1/16″ clear acrylic to go under each bookend, that extended a few inches under where the books go. That worked really well and the 1/16″ is thin enough that you don’t notice it at all.