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I've seen some pendants with designs in black on dichro, and I'm wondering how it was done. I'm not referring to the decal type, or the pre-made dichro strips. The kind I'm asking about are individually done.

Somewhere I thought I saw a thread (probably another forum) about using black Sharpie pens to draw, and whatever was marked would fire in black. Was I dreaming? Or is there a way to do this?

You were dreaming sort of. Another poster described a method of drawing a design in sharpie or whatever on the dichro, recoating the drawing and then puting the etching cream on. The dichro survives under the sharpie. I tried it and it works great.

To have a black design I use my dremel to grind away the design. Also works great. So does sandblasting.

One for a positive design and one for a negitive design.

Jack

Hi, Deb,

Black Sharpie burns off. However, someone did tell me that it's possible to have custom patterns printed on dichro. Maybe if you contacted Coatings By Sandburg someone there could be of help. Good luck.

Denise[/url]

I don't know about the sharpie thing.......I can't imagine that working.

But, if you get a sheet of dichro on black glass, you can use resist to introduce a pattern then sandblast the dichro off, leaving you with the base black glass as the design surrounded by the dichro.

Lisa

Jack, by Jove--I think you've got it!

Thanks for clearing the mystery up!

there used to be a jewelry maker in hawaii who put their designs on pendants and earrings. it was done with a computer program and an XY plotter which cut the stencils. the little stencils were adhesive-backed. she put them on her glass, sandblasted the dichro off, and fire polished. i know another jewelry maker who uses the same program and plotter to cut resist stencils for sandblasting images into stone he uses in his pieces.

Kitty wrote:there used to be a jewelry maker in hawaii who put their designs on pendants and earrings. it was done with a computer program and an XY plotter which cut the stencils. the little stencils were adhesive-backed. she put them on her glass, sandblasted the dichro off, and fire polished. i know another jewelry maker who uses the same program and plotter to cut resist stencils for sandblasting images into stone he uses in his pieces.

I just spent a few weeks in Whistler BC with a couple who use a plotter to cut their sandblast resist. $10,000 for the plotter. It does extremely fine work.

Jack

my friend's plotter wasn't anywhere near that much money. it does very precise work, too. i think he and the other person i referred to had the same equipment.

Lisa Allen wrote:I don't know about the sharpie thing.......I can't imagine that working.

But, if you get a sheet of dichro on black glass, you can use resist to introduce a pattern then sandblast the dichro off, leaving you with the base black glass as the design surrounded by the dichro.

Lisa

Sharpie does work. The edges aren't as crisp as it is if you mask with masking tape or stickers.

Here's an example using a sticker (Michael's has a jillion tiny stickers to choose from for this kind of thing):



Put the sticker on the dichro, brush on the etch, wait a couple minutes and rinse.

- Paul

Oooh Paul. Now I know what all those sticker aisles at Michaels are for! And to think when my kids were growing up (a million years ago), all we had were stars!

THANKS--GREAT IDEA!!

A black sharpie pen can be used as a resist. Draw a positive or negative design on the dichroic with a good black sharpie. apply the etch cream wash in water and it works! The catch is to experimennt with the amount of time that the etch cream is left on. Depending on the dichroic, the strength of the etch cream and the design, the time can be between 15 and 40seconds. Test strips should be done.
The results can be from a variation in the dichro hue to a clean image(not as sharp as a cut stencil) and the most useful a 'distressed' look.
jim

OK, I gotta ask - what is a 'sharpie'?
No doubt it is called something else in the UK. Can we have a picture?

Peg wrote:OK, I gotta ask - what is a 'sharpie'?
No doubt it is called something else in the UK. Can we have a picture?

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=142364

Wow Jack, that must have been a really big plotter. My husbands plotter cost less than $2000.00 and he got the whole kit and cabootle, with patterns and vinyl and videos etc. He makes all my stencils for my etched dichroic designs, and he uses it for stencils for his sandblasted glass art.
The possibilities are endless

there's lots of places that do custom etching patterns on dichro. there's a guy in glendale arizona that does the one's that sara uses. info in the old archives.

The plotter

Not sure what it is and it's the only one I've seen while it is working. $10,000 CAN would be about $7200 US. He has another one that he paid a couple thousand for. I know it's about 40" wide and spits out stencil about as fast as you can see. Also scribes metal sheet though I'm not sure that's in the directions.

Also not sure he got a cabootle with it.


I've seen water jet cut patterns in dichro. Anybody know any sources?

Jack

Pacific Art Glass in Gardena, California does water jet dichro patterns. Unfortunately, their website doesn't have any pics, but I've seen them at the shop and they are very interesting. They will also do custom work. They can be contacted at: 1-800-354-5277.

plotter/stencil cutters start around $700 for desktop versions, and keep going up. if interested, see products made by STIKA ROLAND. Model SX-8 is the least expensive. i know somebody who's using this one, and it is pretty remarkable. it uses material about 12" wide, on a roll. Corel Draw works with it.

I just found a company through Google who are advertising a STIKA ROLAND SX-8 for only $429.00. http://specialdelivery.bizhosting.com/r ... tters.htmlDoes this machine really work well on all kinds of dichro (excluding textures, of course)? Is there any limit as to the amount or intricacy of the pattern that can be cut on any given page? My apologies to those of you who are experts at this technology, but this is the first time I've heard of this machine. I've been hand-etching designs with my dremel till my fingers have gone numb and this sounds like an investment worth making. Any experienced cutters out there who can offer some advise?

DOLORES

Opps! I did that URL wrong.
http://specialdelivery.bizhosting.com/r ... tters.html
If it didn't work this time, I give up!

DOLORES