Lithophanes In Solid Surface Material
The Greek origin of the word means "light in stone" or to "appear in stone".
Lithophanes are not any thing new they were popular in the Mid 19th century in Europe. You can go to What is a Lithophane and find out more about them if you are interested in there history.
Today in this modern world there is a way to make them on a CNC machine out of a solid surface material and a software program that when you load a photo into it, it will give you the negative of a photograph and the program will give you a code to the cnc machine to cut the negative out. The dark areas will appear as high spots and the lighter areas will become low spots on the solid surface material. When light is passed through the material it becomes a three dimensional picture. It is hard to believe the visual effect of the photograph. You can put them on a window and see the photos or a box is made with a fluorescent light in it as the light source.
Most Photographs work as a lithophane and the most economacial
way to go is have a smaller one made and hang it on a window with a suction cup as you would a stained glass art piece. When you have larger ones you usally have a box with a light source in them and they hang on the wall or sit on a end table and you can enjoy them
24/7 if you want too.
Today in this modern world there is a way to make them on a CNC machine out of a solid surface material and a software program that when you load a photo into it, it will give you the negative of a photograph and the program will give you a code to the cnc machine to cut the negative out. The dark areas will appear as high spots and the lighter areas will become low spots on the solid surface material. When light is passed through the material it becomes a three dimensional picture. It is hard to believe the visual effect of the photograph. You can put them on a window and see the photos or a box is made with a fluorescent light in it as the light source.
Most Photographs work as a lithophane and the most economacial
way to go is have a smaller one made and hang it on a window with a suction cup as you would a stained glass art piece. When you have larger ones you usally have a box with a light source in them and they hang on the wall or sit on a end table and you can enjoy them
24/7 if you want too.
This is in Flash
First Picture is the original photograph
Second Picture is the solid surface no light from behind.
Third picture is the solid surface with back lighting
