Inlaying different kinds of wood

This design was based of of a friend’s underwater photo. I wanted to the lightly scorched maple to represent the orange of the clown fish. Likewise, the dark tones of the cherry wood would drop into the background.

The challenge of this piece was getting a tight fit with the inlay. The laser has a finite width, so the inlay would be loose without any adjustments. Likewise, the laser is focused with a lens, so the edge of the wood has a slight angle. I addressed this by expanding the lines in Illustrator by half the laser width, then cutting the hole for the inlay from behind so that the angles would match up. (Picture below for reference).