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Lettering

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:07 am
by glaswizz
I have a friend that would like her company name put on a plate. I am trying to figure out the best way to attack the lettering. Does anyone have any ideas they are willing to share? I was thinking of using frit and "drawing" it on using something like Liquid Stringer. The other option I have it to actually cut the letters in glass and tack them on. I just think I might have some issues as she has a lot of "S" in her name. Are there any other options that I'm completely ignoring? Thanks for any suggestions.

Re: Lettering

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 11:43 am
by Laurie Spray
A simple way is to put letter on the glass, spinkle frit power around and over them. Remove the letter and they will be the color of the background glass. I have used "foam" letters from Michaels. I pick them up with a thumb tack. Put out the entire name in foamies...sprinkle well......carefully get the letters off. If you don't like the way it looks it is quick to brush off the powder and do it again. If you don't want to get into silk screening, or finely painted lettering this is a simple quick approach.
These letters come in a huge tub for around $5

Lots of other fancier ways though!

Re: Lettering

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 1:15 pm
by Valerie Adams
You could use Glassline paints to draw the letters on.
You could use an ink pen and mix clove oil and enamel and write them on.
You could use a decal to fuse her logo/lettering on.
You could kiln carve the letters into the back of the plate.
You could carve a rubber stamp or have one made, then stamp either an enamel mixture on or stamp and adhesive and then brush mica or dry enamel over it.
You could cut the letters out of copper and include them between layers.

I'm sure there are lots of other ideas but these are some that have worked for me.

Re: Lettering

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:27 pm
by Laurie Spray
If this is just for one plate it would go easiest problem free way........

Re: Lettering

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 9:10 pm
by JestersBaubles
A nice book to have. Gives you lots of options:

http://warmglass.com/printmaking/

Dana

Re: Lettering

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 9:25 pm
by Mike Jordan
I've done a few letters and numbers by getting candy molds and using Freeze N Fuse to make them first and then tack fuse them to the tile. You can make FnF as thin or thick as you like and they are pretty well defined. There are a ton of candy molds out there in letters for very cheap. You just need some powder frit in the appropriate color.

Mike

Re: Lettering

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 1:16 am
by tbach
You will get crisp, readable text and logo designs by using silkscreen and glass enamels. If you can find someone to make your screen, you will avoid that learning curve. The actual printing is not that difficult. Bullseye just added a tutorial to their site. Take a look when you can. The tutorial uses a very fine screen - I have found that I can get great results with a #110 screen on most designs. I use a Yudu for exposing and printing, but I had to make a drying box with plastic container and hair dryer because the fan in the Yudu takes too long to dry screens. I like the Yudu because it has a small footprint and simplifies the process a great deal.

If you have a screen, there is another alternative to glass enamels . . . sifting glass powders (powdered frit) through a #110 silkscreen design with your glass beneath - about 1/4" gap between screen and glass. I simply use a piece of matboard to push the powder back an forth across the design - usually 5-7 passes is enough. You won't get the clarity sifting that you get by printing with glass enamels, but it will be readable and not nearly as messy as working with enamels.

Glass enamels need to be fired at a temp required for the specific enamel powder you're using - available in low-fire and high-fire from several sources.
With sifting, you can control the texture of the finished design with firing temp - at 1300° it is very rough . . . at 1325° it is kind of "velvety" . . . at full fuse, there will be hardly any texture at all.

I have not been doing glass for a very long time - a couple of years - but for some reason, my mind made the connection between fusing and screen printing almost immediately. Almost every piece I do has either direct screen printing, screened decals, or sifting through a silkscreen.

If you don't mind the sepia/brown color world, you could use laser printer decals. I have used them, but find that not all projects work with brown/sepia coloration.

I have examples of all three processes on my site - http://www.tedbachglass.com

When I first started, the whole screen production thing really freaked me out, but at this point, I have no problem making a screen for one project. Your screen can be kept and re-used at a later date, or reclaimed for another design.

Good luck

Re: Lettering

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 1:37 am
by Mike Jordan
I've done a bunch of research on screen printing and even bought the kits that Barry Kaiser sells to do screen printing. I did not get anything useful out of the supplied pre-coated screens (completely my limitations and fault and not any fault of Barry's kit) although I did get one screen that actually looked like a screen print design. In the process of looking at at screen printing using real screen printing equipment I found several that sold pre-coated screens that just needed exposed and cleaned to be ready to print and a couple of sources that would take your artwork and expose and clean the screen and send that to you. There are some requirements on how the artwork looks to get a good exposure and if I can ever create the images I want to screen print, that is the direction I'm going to go. I'd rather pay the money for a screen done right than waste the money trying to do it myself. :D But if you do try screen printing do a google on screen printing. There are a bunch of resources out there.

Mike

Re: Lettering

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:17 am
by glaswizz
Thank you all so much for the ideas. Still not sure how I am going to tackle it, but I definitely have a ton of methods to look into. Really appreciate the help! :D

Re: Lettering

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 11:22 am
by bob proulx
If you have a company in the area that does water jet cutting give them a call and see what they would charge.
Bob

Re: Lettering

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 2:07 pm
by jim simmons
cut a stencil and sandblast
Jim

Re: Lettering

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 5:50 pm
by Morganica
Or cut a stencil out of thickish cardboard, set it on the glass and sift powder on it.

You can also--if you have a handtool like a Dremel or Foredom with a diamond bit (I prefer the ball or flame tips for this)--fuse the blank, then carve the letters into the underside. If you use a fairly fine bit (220 or 260, depending on the manufacturer), the slump fire will be enough to slightly shine up the carving. It'll show through to the top almost like a hologram. It looks especially nice if you use a darker transparent glass. Be careful not to incise too deep--a millimeter or so is enough.

Re: Lettering

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 5:25 am
by RHunter
hi glasswiz

along the lines of mixing powder and glue.....you could mix any number of the metallic mica's and freehand the writing or if your penmanship is iffy, get a calligraphy stencil and follow along.....the only caveat is that you have to cap the mica.

Randy

Re: Lettering

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 1:55 pm
by Mark Hall
Try mixing kiln wash to a thick consistancy like cake frosting. Put it into an empty cleaned standard plastic mustard bottle, and squeeze out lines onto the prepared kiln shelf for bias relief. It won't be as accurate as painting, sandblasting, and such - but it's a creative way to include letters and images in an artistic fashion. Glass placed on top of these (dryed) lines produces textured results.

Re: Lettering

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 3:05 pm
by Caco
Mike Jordan wrote:I've done a bunch of research on screen printing and even bought the kits that Barry Kaiser sells to do screen printing. I did not get anything useful out of the supplied pre-coated screens (completely my limitations and fault and not any fault of Barry's kit) although I did get one screen that actually looked like a screen print design. In the process of looking at at screen printing using real screen printing equipment I found several that sold pre-coated screens that just needed exposed and cleaned to be ready to print and a couple of sources that would take your artwork and expose and clean the screen and send that to you. There are some requirements on how the artwork looks to get a good exposure and if I can ever create the images I want to screen print, that is the direction I'm going to go. I'd rather pay the money for a screen done right than waste the money trying to do it myself. :D But if you do try screen printing do a google on screen printing. There are a bunch of resources out there.

Mike
Mike Jordan or others, do you know of a printer that I can send my artwork and lettering to than can print high quality enamel waterslide decals, ones that stay crisp after firing on glass? As I understand it, the printers needed to do this are very $ and not too many printers offer it, and suggestions?

Re: Lettering

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 3:38 pm
by jim simmons
Any HP laser printer should work for Sepia prints.
jim

Re: Lettering

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 3:54 pm
by Caco
Thanks Jim, this works great for sepia.

I'm looking for crisp true tone black enamel lettering.

Re: Lettering

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 4:07 pm
by GuyKass
Hi Cara-

I am quite biased, but here is some work done with Mica (on the left) and black enamel (on the right.)

It is done with a combination of Barry Kaiser's materials, and my sandblasting/etching.

You can't beat the detail, and you colors aren't much of an issue.

I see you are in Eastern PA, I am in NW NJ...

Guy

Re: Lettering

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:09 pm
by Caco
Thanks Guy, yes, we're north of Philly, looks like you're near where our son goes to school. And yes, your work is super.

The reason for decal preference is my work is small and one-off, although I'm toying with expanding...and I need a good printing partner for mass production. I talked to a print shop in our area who actually can make custom silk screened water slide enamel decals, he was just too high maintenance to get through a conversation with :wink:

Re: Lettering

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 6:29 pm
by GuyKass
Thanks for the compliment. But the offer stands. If you want to give it a shot work with this process you are more than welcome to come by.

Guy