I have been keeping a Ouija board image in my ‘to-do projects’ folder for some time now. There are lots of pictures of these boards on the web, but I had a hard time finding one at a really high resolution to the point I could autotrace it and convert it to vector. So I used the best picture I could find as a template, and then copy pasted individual parts and pieces from all over the web into 1 high quality image. Tracing was easy now with an 8000 pixel wide graphic, so after some minor cleanup I ended up with the result I was looking for.

The plan has always been to laser etch a copy, but my laser is currently broken, and it is too small anyway. But I know someone who just started a lasercutting business, so I sent the file to him. The result can be seen in the picture above.

I asked him to get a good contrasting color, and I must say he outdid himself, making the lasered parts almost pitch black. The only drawback is that they are now slightly lower than the untouched wood, which might not be ideal with regard to moving the eye around. We’ll see when I get to that.

I sprayed on a few layers of clear coat just to seal the ashes and the woodgrain.

Next up will be the eye.