Glass Decals

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peterbr
Posts: 36
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2004 8:36 pm

Glass Decals

Post by peterbr »

Okay here's the deal. I am looking for a company that prints either black, white, gold and silver fusabled decals. I need some text printed that can be cut out and then fused to glass. I know there are companies that do large runs. Are there any that could print 5 sheets for a reasonable price. This would solve a large problem.

Thanks in advance,

Peter Brown
Vonon
Posts: 194
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:32 pm
Location: East Tennessee

Re: Glass Decals

Post by Vonon »

Vonon
Emily Will
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:08 am

Re: Glass Decals

Post by Emily Will »

After reading the entire website at
http://insplainsightart.com
I decided to give it a try. I put together the required 10"x15.5" photoshop
file - which I made as a composite of about 20 color photos that I would like
to fuse in glass for various Christmas presents. In about 3 days the decal should arrive.
I'd like to know if anyone else has already done this and has some tips to share.

Typically I use Bullseye, but one tip on InPlainSightArt was that if you use Bullseye it has
to be fused smooth before applying the decal, but with Spectrum you don't have to do that.
So I did get some Spectrum today to avoid that step. Also, they print with a CYMK process,
so they can not print "white." If you need "white" it has to come from the glass backing.

The decal has a coating which allows it to be fused either on the top of the glass, or between
glass. To fuse it between, you have to first fuse it on top of a base and then fuse again with the
second piece. The first fuse (decal fuse) is only to about 1300. I'm not sure how it all fits together
so if anyone else knows about this I'd be very interested in your comments.

Cheers,
Emily
Tracy Fries
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:14 pm

Re: Glass Decals

Post by Tracy Fries »

Sorry, I'm of no help to you Emily, but I've been to their website several times and just haven't convinced myself to take the plunge yet - I'm really looking forward to learning how the process goes for you and hope that you'll be willing to share your results here!

~ Tracy
Michele gh
Posts: 71
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:10 pm
Location: Massachusetts
Contact:

Re: Glass Decals

Post by Michele gh »

If you want to use 90 coe glass, Uroboros makes a machine rolled smooth glass, which is compatible with Bullseye.
Emily Will
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:08 am

Re: Glass Decals

Post by Emily Will »

Michelle -

Thank you for that info. I did get some Spectrum for this first round of experimenting, but
next time I will go for the Uroboros so I can keep everything I have at COE 90. If my decals
arrive by Saturday I will have some first results to describe early next week.

Emily
Emily Will
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:08 am

Re: Glass Decals - Success!

Post by Emily Will »

Last week I asked if anyone had experience with the color custom photo decals that can be ordered from http://inplainsightart.com.
No one had, but several people asked me to post my results. So, here is what happened.

The website is very good at explaining every phase of the process. First I created a 10"x15.5" file in Photoshop which I set up as an amalgam of about 20 photos that I wanted to affix to glass in sizes of roughly 2"x3". The file had to be 300 dpi resolution, and meet some other criteria. They can not create "white" so that has to come from your background glass if you need white.

I uploaded the file to their website and paid the $40 plus $11 shipping fee. 3 days later I had my large decal sheet.

The glass for this has to be very smooth, and Spectrum is suggested. I'm a BE user, but got some white and clear Spectrum for this project. For the first attempt I fused a rectangle of clear base and white cap together in advance of applying the decal. I did a second one with just a single rectangle of white with no advance fusing. As per the directions, I cleaned the glass with denatured alcohol. Then it was time for adding the decals.

I cut the decals apart from each other and soaked them in warm distilled water for about a minute. When the decals started to separate from their backing I completed the separation and placed them on my glass. I used the foam edge of a diamond hand pad as a squeegee to get the air bubbles out from behind the decal (which was easier than it sounds). Then I fired according to the schedule on the site. I do have a very small kiln (Evenheat Studio Pro with manual controls) so I did adjust a bit by speeding up since there is not so much lag time for the glass to get hot in such a small kiln.

The result was perfect! The color is good. The images are fairly sharp. There is a nice gloss. I intend to put a clear cap over the one on a single layer of glass to see how that looks different from the one with the image on top. And there is a lot to try with different base colors and even perhaps textures….

If anyone is thinking of trying this, I encourage you to go ahead. At $51 for 150 sq in of decal, I figure that my 2"x3" photo tile cost me around $2 for the decal - plus glass, etc. For gifts, or some sort of commercial project, that is not too bad.

I'll attach a photo. The tile looks better than this, but I need to work on my glass photography techniques:)

Emily
Attachments
DecalProject.jpg
DecalProject.jpg (113.67 KiB) Viewed 13022 times
Mike Jordan
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:13 pm
Location: Hillsboro, OR
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Re: Glass Decals

Post by Mike Jordan »

I have also ordered decals, but I didn't make the deadline for printing last week. They are printing on Tuesday this week so I hope to have them by Friday or Saturday. I put a few bigger images on my page so only got 8 images on it, but they will give me a good example of some of the things I want to use it for later if it turns out as well as I hope it will. I want to also think Vonon for posting the link as well. This will be another interesting process to try. Thanks for posting your experiences and an image, Emily. It does look good.

Mike
It's said that inside each of us is an artist trying to get out. Well mine got out... and I haven't seen him since.
Don Burt
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Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
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Re: Glass Decals

Post by Don Burt »

Emily, what happens if you use it on Bullseye rather than Spectrum? Too many bubbles because of the texture?
Emily Will
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:08 am

Re: Glass Decals

Post by Emily Will »

Don -

I don't know yet but I'll have comments on the by the end of the weekend. I'm off to a family TG and suffering kiln withdrawal:). The implication from Inplainsightart.com is that there will be bubble problems if you don't fuse your base piece flat first. So if you want a thin one layer base you would use Spectrum but if you wanted a two layer base you could fuse that first and use BE. I guess you could fuse one layer of BE first but then you gave the pulling up of the glass to consider.

Emily

Emily
Studiodunn
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Re: Glass Decals

Post by Studiodunn »

I also wrote about my first experience using these decals for the 2013 Magless exchange. Entry # 21. http://www.warmglass.com/magnet/2013%20 ... 040113.pdf

It's definitely an excellent gift giving idea!
“I would rather die than hate you.”
- Martin Luther King
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