Sleek sinusoids for your wrists. Laser-cut acrylic.
A free design from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, complete with dowloadable files so that you can make your own. (And isn’t this a good time for your first laser project?)

In case you haven’t been bitten by this particular bug yet, here’s a quick intro. Laser cutters are an awesome tool in the modern DIY arsenal. This type of laser is a lot like a laser printer, but uses deep infrared carbon dioxide laser that can cut or engrave most plastics. You can find these at hacker spaces like NYC Resistor and membership shops like TechShop and The Sawdust Shop, so it’s finally getting to the point that almost anyone can learn to use one. However not everyone lives by a laser shop, so sites such as Ponoko, Pololu, and Big Blue Saw offer laser cutting services and enable you to submit jobs from anywhere.

Our bracelets are cut from a single sheet of acrylic (using a laser, obviously!) in concentric wavy rings to form a nesting set of various sizes. The light plays through the transparent acrylic in fun and fascinating ways.

Here’s what the set of bracelets look like nested together in their original configuration. The material is 1/4″ (6 mm) thick acrylic with a light-blue tint. The diameters of the individual bands span from kid size to oversize, so this does serve a practical purpose– no measuring required. The “gear” in the middle isn’t used for anything, but it’s pretty nifty anyway.

We also fabbed a set in clear “Arctic Ice” acrylic that is frosted on one side. (Also looks awesome, but transparent and hence harder to photograph!)

The really cool thing about using multiple materials is that the sets still nest neatly, allowing combinations of colors and textures for even more fun.

You can download and use this pattern [100 kB ZIP archive] to cut these out locally or to have them cut at your choice of job shops. We’ve included a PDF version, native Inkscape design files (Mmmm…Inkscape, another fine tool for DIYers), and a version preformatted for fabbing it yourself with Ponoko, using their small-format template.

Besides the resources that we mentioned earlier, more laser businesses and other laser resources are listed at Lady Ada’s laser site. Also note that your local TAP Plastics is a good source for inexpensive acrylic scrap if you’re not using vendor provided stock.