Picked up some cheap circular mirrors and figured it’d be a good thing to play with. Didn’t notice the pads on the back nor the UPC sticker. 4 pads and the UPC sticker were removed with a heat gun.
Since I didn’t know what power to use the experimenting started. Tried 30% at 600mm/min with my Ortur Diode laser (~5.5 optical watts). I could see it did something, just not enough, also noticed I didn’t mirror the image so it would be correct on the mirrored side. Then tried 50% which worked, put some black paint on the burn - looked OK. Did 80% and that was the ticket for the diode laser. Tried a rose and painted things black.
So I designed something a little more complex, some roses and other flowers for the center and a few words and some curly ques on the side. Did a crosshatch burn which took a bit over an hour at the 80% 600mm/min.
Then with selective masking and 5 colors spent some time spray painting leaves, berries, flowers and letters.
The burned lines are thin and since it’s my first mirror burn I should have made things a bit more bold. But that’s why you do testing and trials. Still worked pretty good.
With lighting and a better angle the color jumps out. Pretty sure thicker burn lines will be better for the technique.
These look really great! Good job explaining your settings and technique (including the false starts!)!
On thing I’m trying to get my head around is what we’re seeing in the first and second photos (in your first post). Is that some sort of layer you stuck to the front of the mirror and that is what you’ve exposed? It looks like paper, but I’m not 100% sure I understand your process.
Oh wow! So the ceiling is like a tan tile ceiling? I totally missed that!!! It looks like folded paper stuck to the mirror and you somehow etched the paper!
Thanks for getting me back on the ground!!!
The hardest part about mirrors is taking pictures of them because of the reflection. Trying not to get yourself or the camera in the shot, or a light, or glare etc.
