Faux Stained Glass

My attempt at a faux stained glass with epoxy resin and wood. I'm very pleased with the outcome and some extra unexpected qualities from the resin pigments I used!
Source: https://youtu.be/UUQ7TXfbeoo

I'm using a CNC machine to cut out the wood stencil. I admit it could be done much faster with a scroll saw, but I had access to a CNC and wanted to try it out. This particular machine could create a cut based solely off a picture.

Once imported into the machine's software it was easy to manipulate it. What I was looking for was a cut that left the black areas intact and cut out the white portions.

After about 10 minutes or so I had what I wanted and saved the file, so I could head out to my shop and cut it on the CNC.

The wood I'm using is a furniture grade plywood 5mm in thickness.

The CNC is quite hypnotic to watch. It's amusing to me how much time I spent watching this cut, considering that it a labor saving device and my time would have been better spent doing ANYTHING other than watching it....

I admit to have trouble seeing a butterfly in this mess...

After a could seconds with the shop vac.

You want to add the finish early. If you apply resin to unfinished wood, the fibers will act like a sponge wicking in all the colored resin and the resulting bleeding effect will spoil the faux glass illusion.

After the lacquer dried I added a layer of packing tape to the back of the butterfly. The packing tape serves two purposes.

First, it will contain the resin into the cells, but it also will act as a release agent, allowing us to remove the tape without it sticking to the resin.

The resin I'm using here is called Total Boat. It is a marine epoxy mostly used for fiberglass and sealing a boats hull. I like it because of the mixing pumps mean I don't have to fuss with measuring it and it is a clear resin with cures in about 2 - 3 hours.

I've chosen 4 florescent dyes for this project. Violet, Pink, Yellow and Hot Lips.... (sigh)

There is something very satisfyingly about filling up the cells as neatly as possible...

The yellow almost has a Mt. Dew quality to it...

Here is with all the colors added. It's still wet at this point and I will leave it be for about 24 hours.

The next day the packing tape is pulled off the back.

And I use my band saw to free the butterfly from the surrounding frame.

A couple of minutes with a 120 grit sanding wheel on my Dremel and we can call this project done.

I'm super happy with the outcome. But I had hoped that the three shades of purple/pink would be more distinct. It's not bad, just more subtle than I had envisioned.

I also tried one with the frame filled in.

And a Ryu

But it's when I realized that the fluorescent dyes glowed under the shine of the black light that I felt I really found something cool!
I will definitely be doing more of this in the future...