Since we're sharing our Unknown Pleasures, here's what I made for me wife for our anniversary:
Alternating layers of aircraft ply and acrylic, based on the cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures.
Took the XY coordinates of each of the 80 layers, plotted them out in CAD, turned them into splines, extruded into bodies, laser cut all of them. Numbering the layers was key to making sure I didn't mix them up.
Laid out the whole deal as a mirrored patterned sconce - I realized that a single side would just be a wedge sticking out of the wall.
Made a 3d print to make sure proportions were correct to what I had in my head.
Took the aircraft ply and dyed them brown, because aniline was tons cheaper than buying walnut ply.
Side design is some Deco inspired work that looked neat (we both love Deco designs).
Built an acrylic inner structure, mirrored acrylic on the back to reflect the lights.
Used some TP-link programmable LEDs to illuminate the layers. Alternatively, a mirrored light bulb is in the center.
On the unseen side is another Unknown Pleasure, the lyrics to our first song, and an engraving of our separate (yet matched) photo booth strips.
All in, approximately 240 pieces. It's not perfect, but it's a solid representation of where my skills are.
Edit!
• For those asking, I grabbed the raw dataset of Pulsar PSR B1919+21 and put that in Excel. Transformed the data so that each column represented a different layer. I exported all 80 columns as individual CSV file in .txt format, with the Z-column being the individual layer heights. I work in metric, because I'm not an animal, so each layer was spaced by 1mm.
• Each file was then brought into SolidWorks as its own sketch. The data points were created as pointclouds. SolidWorks has a neat tool to create a spline out of points, so I used that, 80 times.
• Once I determined some general things, like height, how to best apply the Golden Ratio, etc. I made a general boxy shape that I could modify easily with some basic parametric modeling (CAD crew nodding their heads here), and extruded to the thickness of my stock (this changed many times, as stock thickness had a direct correlation on overall size to maintain my desired ratio)
• From there, I was able to offset the layers, create some more bodies, etc.
• Once I was happy with the entire assembly, I generated a new, flat model for layout. I used this to figure out how much material was needed.
• DXF's were then exported from Solidworks, and imported into Lightburn.
• All plastic parts were cleaned with a degreaser (some offgassing occurred during laser-cutting. Bad settings on my part).
• All wooden pieces were lasercut, cleaned, sanded, dyed, sanded, shellac'd, then assembled.
Also, for further reference, please check out the amazing project from u/_DomovoiD_