Dandelion Puff Engraving & Abalone Shell Inlay Lips Display “One Moment in Time”

The P3 S lens was used.

The dandelion puff should be harvested before fully mature. See instructions in the download file for the “perfect puff”. The eclosion should be in a controlled environment to avoid any loss of seeds to the head. To protect the seeds and head, use only a good quality hair spray which dosen’t yellow.

Collect your immature heads. Cut the stem to about 5 cm and insert a cocktail stick reaching up to the head. Dip 3 seconds in hot water and then cold to eliminate any bugs and help the head to bloom.

Hang upside down until the proper stage for lasering (see download file).

At this point, protect with a couple of layers of hair spray to avoid seed loss.

Place under the laser and add a thin piece of paper or such so that the laser can be set automatically. It will not detect the material or will go too far down to be able to achieve a correct level of engraving. Make sure the pattern is very simple to avoid burning. Once the laser has detected the head, don’t forget to slightly raise the lid (to avoid the automatic detection to start over) to remove the paper or thin piece of wood before processing.

Place in a protected place whilst preparing the other elements.

Quite often the abalone shell is mounted on a double faced sticker. If this is the case, remove the protective paper and sticker leaving the sticky layer. Place sticky side up and fix to the blue tape and foil. If there is no back sticker, place the abalone shell front face down and fix into place. If there is no sticky side, glue can be used for inlaying into the wood. Place the shell on a blue painters tape face side down and place this preparation (sticky side up) on a heat proof aluminium foil (the type used for car repairs and the thick version - the P3 will cut through the thinner tapes).

Cut out the lips and set aside.

Engrave the message “One Moment in Time). This can be edited to suit your needs.

Cut out the back piece of walnut for the lips, the ring for the puff and the base board.

Invert the design for the inlay and then after cutting, glue the abalone shell inlay in place. Remove the blue painters tape from the front side of the shell after oiling or varnishing.

In this example, linseed oil was used.

Blue painters tape was used to protect facing of wood to avoid sanding.

After sanding any edges, use a suitable oil or vanish on the wood except the lips which should be done after gluing or sticking in the inlay.

Drill a hole into the base edge of the lips. Glue in the brass rod with superglue.

Drill a hole through each edge of the ring for the dandelion puff. Insert the brass rod through the base, then through the head and then into the top of the ring. Fix in place with superglue. Add superglue to the back of the dandelion puff to make sure it dosen’t swivel. 

Drill a small hole into the base for each of the brass rods and set with superglue.

The project is finished.