Advice for painting clear acrylic

Im hoping someone in here might have a suggestion.

I have a project where I would use the laser to engrave some clear acrylic and I would side-light the piece so that the engraved portions “glow” with the light (white LEDs).

I want to have some sections filled in with blue to create a two tone effect. Im wanting to make someone that would hang on a wall so using multiple peices of acrylic with multiple light setups is not ideal.

Any suggestion on what I could/should use to paint the colored parts that would keep it glowing like the white bits or at least close to?

Thanks in advance for any pointers you can suggest.

Right now, im thinking I might need to use some dyed resin, but I dont want to have to sand down the entire back of a 2ft by 3ft clear acrylic sign to be completely clear again.

An example would be this… or something similar, I just want to have some lettering with colors while the rest is “white”

or

I also found https://community.glowforge.com/t/edge-lit-acrylic-tests-color-fills/15960 where they use some different types of coloring. The crayon red and black look pretty good all things considered. But im looking specifically for a good blue.

I’m just going to guess here, but probably acrylic paint will stick to acrylic well. A brief online search didn’t confirm or deny that, but I see where people used acrylic spray paint so I think brush pain would work also. We have lots of acrylics in CA you could do a test piece.

There are paints made for use on glass, so you can choose translucent or opaque effects. That could be an option. Or maybe there is a translucent vinyl that could be cut on the cameo or vinyl cutter, then applied to the acrylic?

Stained glass paint. Either mask and spray the engraved areas you want or brush it on thicker for less translucent.

Signs like that are usually engraved and then printed on with a flatbed printer. or a transparent media is printed on and applied to the back/front with engraving on opposite side.

edit: could try to cut colored acrylic on the laser to inlay into engraved areas of the clear acrylic but that sounds like a lot of work to get a flush fit with no sanding.

Hrm, good ideas. I have some test acrylic sheets on their way to me so I can test and see which works, or at least get an idea.

Thanks again for the suggestions!

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We also have two scrap pieces in my car. Just FYI.

I suspect they are using LaserBits Pro Color Fill. Johnson Plastics allegedly sells the LaserBits products.

Acrylic paint will rub off easily if you have large areas. It will be just fine in small grooves.

EDIT: This YouTube video from Laser University is pretty good.

@Kriskat30 is doing some cool pigmented resin over acrylic. She plans to LED side- or back-light. Saw it this afternoon. Very impressive.

And it’s literally called “Blue”

Ill have to take a look, this might be exactly what im looking for.