Rebecca Y. E. Lin
← Field Notes

what’s left when the tide ebbs?

Process notes on a layered acrylic light piece.

  • Fabrication
  • Light
  • Process

Letters gather into waves across three layers of acrylic, illuminated from below.

Front view of Tide, with illuminated letterforms forming layered waves.Close-up of the engraved letters and overlapping wave textures.Angled view showing the three acrylic layers and plywood base.
From left: the waves together, a closer look at the letters, and the space between the layers.

The base

The 279.4 × 95 × 45 mm base is made from 3 mm plywood. Three 10 × 11 inch sheets of 3 mm acrylic, spaced 16 mm center to center, insert 15 mm into the base.

The battery compartment has 19 mm of vertical clearance—about 6 mm above a ½-inch-thick battery. The design accommodates 8 mm-wide LED strips lying flat on the middle slab, with wires routed through the corner cutouts. The joints fit together without glue.

AssembledSeparated
AcrylicPlywoodLED stripsBattery

Making files

Acrylic

3 pages · 10 × 11 in each

Download PDF ↓
Front acrylic sheet: PNG engraving with a red rectangular cut outline.
Middle acrylic sheet: PNG engraving with a red rectangular cut outline.
Back acrylic sheet: PNG engraving with a red rectangular cut outline.

Plywood

19 pieces · 457.95 × 285.4 mm

Download PDF ↓w/ cable opening
Full plywood cutting sheet: three horizontal panels, four walls, and twelve supports, outlined in red.

Clearance adjustments below are total differences, not per-side offsets: negative is tighter; positive is looser.

  • Teeth (corners, lid, and bottom): −0.40 mm.
  • Upright and middle-slab slots:
    • −0.20 mm along the tab width.
    • −0.40 mm across the nominal 3 mm plywood thickness.
  • Acrylic slots: +0.05 mm relative to nominal 3 mm acrylic.

These adjustments are already included in the files. Fit depends on the material thickness, cutter, and focus. Test the joint fit and engraving and cutting settings on scrap material before running the full files.