Sample Club: Jewelry Engraving - Lasered Black Onyx Jewelry

Materials:

• 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick acrylic
• onyx jewelry (bracelet, earrings, pendant)

Files: Right click the file below and choose "Save target as." Open the file in CorelDraw 8 or later.

Start by opening any of the files above, depending on which piece of jewelry you want to work with first. All of the files include a "jig" to place your jewelry in while engraving and a "format" piece so that you know where to place your graphics (centered on the yellow section) for engraving onto your onyx. (See Figure 1)

When you open the file, the jig will be centered on the page in CorelDRAW. Use a piece of scrap acrylic to create the jig. Print the file to the laser (use combined mode for all three jigs) and make sure you engrave deep enough into the acrylic so that the jewelry sits flat on the jig. We ran the jewelry on a 45 watt Epilog Mini at 25% Speed and 100% Power for raster and 5% Speed and 100% Power for the vector. Next, place your acrylic in the machine and hit Go.

When the machine is done creating your jig, remove the pieces from the machine and with the pick tool selected drag the jig off the page within CorelDRAW.

Now, click on the Pick Tool again in CorelDRAW then click onto the "Format" file (with the Yellow object located inside). Center the Format file on the page by typing "P" on your keyboard. (see Figure 2).

Figure 2		Figure 3
	Figure 4

Drop your graphic inside the file and resize it (if necessary) to fit perfectly in the yellow area of the file (see Figure 2).

Centering your graphics:
A. Click onto the Pick Tool, then click on the format section of the file and right click on your mouse and select "ungroup" (see Figure 5).

B. Next, grab your graphic using your Pick Tool and place it anywhere inside the Yellow section of your format piece (see Figure 6).

C. Finally, using your Pick Tool, select your graphic, press the Shift Key on your keyboard, click onto the Yellow box or circle and press "C" then "E" on your keyboard, and this will center your graphics as shown in Figure 7.

Next, use the Pick Tool to select ONLY the graphics you want to engrave on your onyx. We used a flower in Figure 2 and a clover in Figure 6. The graphic is Raster only - you can get these images from the onyxgraphics.cdr file.

Click File then Print. In the Printer Range section of the print driver click on the Selection box. Now, open Properties and select Raster. With a 45 watt Mini, we ran this job at 100% speed and 45% power.

Repeat steps 1 thru 6 as necessary. For this month's sample club we have added a file with the graphics we used on the Onyx (Figure 8). You can copy and paste them into your files as needed. We also encourage you to create your own graphics and add them as desired.

Remember we want you to create your own lasting memories on onyx as many have done before. Have fun and enjoy!