Customised laser-engraved necklace

thingiverse

I made these necklaces for season's gifts last year. I gave them to women and girls and was surprised that boys also liked them. I used gold-plated or silver-plated chains. Some recipients prefer to have them as bracelets. Children between 6 and 12 years of age enjoy making the chains themselves, and I found it a good bonding activity. # Joining with a chain You need chains, jump rings, two sets of pliers, and one cutting plier. Open each jump ring with a twisting motion, place the chain and the hole of the acrylic inside the ring, then close the ring with the reverse twisting motion. See, for example, this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GoA-OZjvKc # Size The designs use 1 pixel = 1 mm. The names are sized for 3mm acrylic and the holes for 6mm jump rings. # Procedure for different names I included some common names. For my next batch of names, I might write code to generate new names automatically, up to the placement of the holes (which require some instinct), and will add the code here. In the meantime, if you want to make a new name, the procedure is detailed below and illustrated in the files: - choose name, type of font - choose type of jewellry (necklace or bracelet) and size the name accordingly - type name (black in my files) add stroke to the name if needed (0.6pt in my files) - expand twice (once for fill and once for stroke), then unite the shapes - offset path for a clear background (2 pixels in my files, in red) - make hollow disks for holes that fit your jump rings (6mm rings in my files) - place the holes in the background shape so they will be roughly on the same line and hold steady to avoid breaking (e.g. nested tightly in a corner) - unite the background shape with the holes - superimpose the expanded text with the background shape - vertically reflect the design if you want to engrave the back of the acrylic - engrave the name and cut the background shape