Laser Etched Aluminum Portfolio

This was an interesting etching!

Several customers (college students mainly) came over to the studio in the last 6 months to laser etch their Pina Zangaro Machina aluminum portfolios with their own custom designs but we always had problems with the etching and actually had to turn away a few people.

The problem? Well, I guess the manufacturer wants to keep the portfolios look scratch-free for as long as possible, and to accomplish this they apply some type of polishing layer to the metal which prevented the laser from properly adhering to it. So when Seeba came by last week we had to tell her the same thing: we have tried it but the results were less than perfect. We suggested that if she wanted to sand down the cover with a fine grit sandpaper it should take care of the problems. She really wanted to get her portfolio done with a custom piece of artwork from her portfolio so she did sand it down and return to the studio today to get the etching done.

As you can see, the results are great! We decided to make the etching in black to stand out more and after the sand job, it actually looked really cool by getting a more industrial feel to it than the initial polished finish. Have a look at the finished product.