For my design, I chose quotes from Tolkien, Rumi, Einstein and Star Wars to adorn my mirror, as well as "Beautiful Mind"-style mathematical equations. I also threw in a curly moustache, just for fun. I'll be looking at this in the morning and I love having affirmations and inspiration to start off my day.
I started by snapping a picture of the original mirror glass to get the correct shape. I used Adobe Illustrator to trace the outline and convert it to a vector file, though you can do this directly in Lightburn laser software as well.
For the text, I found a font I liked and laid everything out all centered and pretty. The first time I took it into Lightburn the font did not come through -- all the text just showed up in Arial and the Makerspace computer didn't have this font (called Luminari).
There is a setting in Illustrator that can fix this: select all the text and choose "Create Outlines" under the Type menu. This will turn your text into vector graphics so you don't need to install any more fonts.
Save/export as an .stl file.
Once the design was done, I realized that the laser at my makerspace was not big enough to fit my entire mirror. I ended up using the CNC router to cut the outlines and then had to cut the acrylic in half in order to get the laser etching done. Check your tools' limitations before you embark on this journey!
- Engraving: This is a physical process that removes material to create a permanent marking. In LightBurn, this is achieved with settings that are more forceful, resulting in a deep and physical mark.
- Etching: This involves using high heat to discolor or melt the micro-surface, which can create a raised effect or mark without significant material removal. The specific settings depend on the material, but generally involve a careful balance of heat and speed to achieve a specific surface change.
For the top half, I used laser settings that did etching. It was a very light pass and the acrylic still feels smooth.
For the bottom half I used settings that did engraving. The cuts are a bit deeper -- I can feel them when I run my hands over the surface.
I found that the etching works much better than the engraving in terms of how far the light is carried. The deeper cuts with engraving tend to make the light stop, where the shallower etching cuts simply glow as the light passes behind them.
The engraving also looks a little bit "fuzzier" -- it's not quite as sharp as the etching.
Light Bleed
I attached my lights to the acrylic, then had to take them off again because my light was bleeding all over the place. These are delicate lights, so try to contain yourself and read through this section -- it may save you from breaking your light strand.
My original plan was to keep the acrylic all in one piece and just shine one or two lights at each quote to light it up. But perhaps because my edges are curved, or perhaps just because this acrylic carries light really well, I got a whole lot of light bleed. Even lighting just one LED would make multiple messages appear (faintly), and I could also see the edge where I'd cut the acrylic.
This is not the magic mirror I was looking for.
I fixed this problem by cutting each message apart using the laser so that each one was on its own piece of acrylic. Then I used black PVC tape (think electrical tape but stickier) to mask the edges of each piece. I taped them all back together in the correct order, and this fixed the light bleed problem! Now, just one message would light up at a time.
This solved two of my problems while creating a third problem: now I could see the black tape against the brown cardboard of the back of the frame. Still not quite the look I was going for.
I used some black matte spray paint and painted the inside of the backing piece flat black. This solved it! Now the quotes appear and I can (mostly) only see the words.
I still have a little bit of light bleed in a dark environment. It's also important to clean your mirror and your acrylic pieces thoroughly -- any speck of dust or fingerprint will also glow just a bit.
Once all your messages are isolated and aligned, it's time to attach the lights.
I used PVC tape to affix the lights to the edge of the acrylic. These lights are just about exactly the correct width to cover the edge of 1/8" acrylic sheet. Lay the lights on top of the PVC tape to get them straight, then wrap the tape securely around the edges of the acrylic.
Remember, you only need lights where the messages are -- not necessarily along the whole mirror edge.
For my mirror, I needed lights along one edge at the top, where the quotes don't go all the way across and where I used laser etching instead of engraving.
At the bottom with the deeper engraved quotes that span the width of the mirror I ended up using a second strip on the other side. This made the mapping a little bit tricker, but also gives me the option to have 2 colors shining at the quote so I get a beautiful gradient effect.
Page last edited September 25, 2025
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