Seashell Carving Tests

There are plenty of seashell pieces to be found on the beach here, and I decided one day to make some test carvings on them. Here are the results on the tests so far:

On the first test I decided to go at high power just to see what would happen. On the mobile phone microscope photo you can see the material actually started to shatter and crack due to the power. Later on the piece itself has started to fall into pieces. Not good at all.

Settings for each test below the photos. DPI on all examples 600.

For the first one I went with Speed: 10, power 100, frequency 5000

2 - 25, 90, 5000

3 - 50, 30, 500

4 - 40, 30, 500

5 - 40, 20, 800

6 - 40, 10, 800

7 - 40, 10, 600

At 7 settings the carved picture wasn't clear enough.

When done the second time over the first pattern, the material cracked.

8 - 35, 15, 800

9 - 40, 15, 1000

Did the test on the cover side of the shell. Image not clear enough. Next image, example 10 is done to the opposite side with same settings. The line is fairly jagged and choppy, especially so when looked at through microscope.

I did not go through these tests very methodically, so it was more of a "Ohh I want to try this!" without very detailed planning. I got an idea on what to expect and what might go wrong, but I will have to do more tests in a more measured way to actually get properly useful data out of this. I have more seashells left, so might get to it some day and post more results.