Maker Portfolio - Lightbox

Lightbox

Artist Statement

For my lightbox, I wanted to encapsulate important parts of my life, from my family, to the music I listen to, to the college I will go to this fall. I wanted my box to be something I could bring with me to my dorm. When the project instructions were first introduced, I had recently gone on a trip upstate to the University of Rochester and Buffalo. To commemorate this event, I focused my lightbox on this trip. I used a picture of my family on the right (I took the picture) standing in front of Niagara Falls and the Toronto skyline as the theme for my acrylic sheets. Choosing this theme affected my wood choice and the colors of the acrylic sheets I used. Throughout the project, especially with the acrylic sheets, my goal was to take full advantage of the Lightburn software and its tools to create compelling images to laser print.

Niagara Falls from state park

The Falls from observation tower

The Falls at night w/ Toronto skyline

Working with Lightburn

To plan out the box on Lightburn, I used a website to create a box outline with the dimensions 12" by 4" by 6" on the inside and with finger joints. For the wood, the lines that would be cut were black while the lines that would be engraved were blue. The back piece had my name engraved as well as a circular hole cut out for the LED light's wire. The front wood piece has the window which will be used for viewing the scene. The borders have different engravings on each corner for personalization. On the top left is the Meliora symbol of Rochester and the bottom left is the Leo constellation. The right top and bottom icons are the symbols of some artists I listen to.

I color-coded each sheet on Lightburn so I would remember which acrylic color I intended to use for the scene. The top left design was for the blue opaque acrylic sheet, the top right was the blue fluorescent, the bottom left was the frosted satin ice, and the bottom right would be cut on the light blue pearl acrylic. For laser printing the acrylics, the black lines were for cutting and the gray-blue lines were for the engravings. It was important to keep in mind that I had to add borders that matched up with the dimensions of the window on the front piece of the wood. For this, it was critical to envision how the laser prints would come out.

Assembly

I. Wood Assembly

For my lightbox, I worked with sapele wood. I thought its smooth texture and grey appearance would fit well with the waterfall theme. I developed new skills while working with wood such as sanding wood and gluing the pieces.

Gluing the wood pieces together required neatness and precision. I glued all the sides, except for the back, together. Using a damp rag, I washed off excess wood glue as I did not want the dried-up yellow residue evident in the final piece. It was satisfying to click the finger joints together. Then, I used blue tape as a clamp to hold the box together and left the wood to dry off for a day. I clicked on the last back piece after installing the lights. It was a bit loose due to the smaller amount of finger joints.

II. Acrylic and Light Assembly

Fortunately, the acrylics came out well. Though there were a few color choices that could have worked better, I was glad with how the color scheme turned out, complementing the waterfall theme.

I used spacers that were around 3/4 of an inch to create depth and make full use of the depth of the box.

For the installation of the lights, I found an LED strip that was the perfect length to wrap around the inner border of the box. The final lightbox reminded me of the view of Niagara Falls at night.

Since the light had a USB cable, I had to connect it to my laptop or a portable charger to light it up.

Final Piece

Detail Pictures

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