Refinements and Considerations: Laser Cut Coaster

Strategy 1 Visual: Heavily dependent on laser cutting
Strategy 2 Visual: 50/50. Laser Cutting and Hands on
Parts laid out (1)
Parts laid out (2)

Hello! I've decided to stick with the Triple Cake Coaster idea, one of my Top 3 choices, as it had more opportunity to be presented well through laser cutting especially in regards to material availability and machine limitations.

Considering all of that, my initial thought process was to make the base (brown part, the cake itself) entirely plastic, acrylic to imitate the type of reflections I want it to have. To be honest, as long as it can reflect light really well on the sides, I don't care much what kind of plastic is available at hand. 

As for the top (icing/toppings), I have two strategies: 1) Individually cut out plastic parts to form the sides where the curves are. It's obvious from the image (2nd/5th image) that there are seam lines, indicating that those parts weren't whole before and I'd have to rely more on the laser cutter to do the most of the work for me. 2) I still wanted to go on ahead with another material that is not hard but rather soft to the touch which brings me to felt. I could just either do the entire top as felt and cut the curves myself or if possible, have the laser cutter cut out the felts in one go and I'd just need to paste them together. Both of these options may be viable so I made sure to include them in my refinement stage.

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