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I had two nicely fused pieces of Spectrum that I etched designs
on(actually shaded) and slumped to 1250 and held 12 min.I lost all of the design( barely visible) Thats history,I learned a lesson.My question is now that they are slumped I cannot apply a resist to the slumped shape .Should I re-fuse to flat and re-shade and slump at a lower temp. longer hold or can I even slump a shaded piece(I've slumped surface etch OK.)
Any and all suggestions appreciated
Mahalo....Mike

Mike,

You should be able to use a rubber resist and with a little pulling and stretching, it will follow the contour (unless you slumped it into a really complex shape). Anchor Continental 128 is an 18 mil thick rubber resist and will follow most contours. If you try to flatten the slumped piece, you will get thickness variation in your glass and you might not get it completely flat or round.

Tony

Thanks Tony,
I use a plotter and this design has a lot of detail,some pieces are less
than a 1/4" wide, even though the slump is only about 1" deep(round cornerd square) My plotter won't cut that.
Mahalo........Mike

NOT FAMILIAR WITH A PLOTTER. WHAT DOES IT DO?
SOUNDS LIKE A FUN THING TO PLAY WITH. CAROLE....

A plotter is a printer of sorts. They were originally used by engineers for creating line drawings from Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) software. Instead of using a pen though, these plotters actually use a knife to cut sheet vinyl. You can use vector art, such as that generated by Corel Draw an Adobe Illustrator, to create intricate, scaleable designs in vinyl. The vinyl is then transferred to glass, and the cut areas removed for sandblasting.

Vinyl cutting plotters were originally used by the sign industry to create vinyl letters and images. They start around $1000 for the smallest and go to several thousand dollars for the larger versions.

Tony

Tony, Thanks for the information on the plotter. Sounds great but at the moment will have to put it on my art budget for the future. Wiring for the new kiln this month. Maybe I can find someone that has one and likes glass that I can try and work a trade.
So glad "the Board" has knowledgeable artist like you that are so willing to share.
Thanks....Carole...S. C.

Mike - If you are careful you shouldn't have any problems reapplying new vinyl. I do this with text that has strokes well under 1/4" inch with out problems. It is not so much the depth as the change in slope. The biggest problem I have is burnishing it after it is in position. I would give it a try before trying to flatten the piece.

What is shading versus surface etch?

Thanks!

Erik

Carole Burton wrote:Tony, Thanks for the information on the plotter. Sounds great but at the moment will have to put it on my art budget for the future. Wiring for the new kiln this month. Maybe I can find someone that has one and likes glass that I can try and work a trade.
So glad "the Board" has knowledgeable artist like you that are so willing to share.
Thanks....Carole...S. C.

Carole, signmakers often work with plotters

Erik,
A straight surface etch is done by pulling all of the pieces of the cut design at once and blasting,as opposed to shading, in which the piece is given depth by sequentially pulling the pieces of the resist(design) ,starting with the front most perspective.
Hope that helps...........Mike

Mike H.>>> Erik,
A straight surface etch is done by pulling all of the pieces of the cut design at once and blasting,as opposed to shading, in which the piece is given depth by sequentially pulling the pieces of the resist(design) ,starting with the front most perspective.
Hope that helps...........Mike<<<

Ah. I didn't know that process was called shading. That also explains the desire to use vinyl or rubber resist instead of photoresist - you can selectively peel the parts of the design from one mask, instead of trying to register and adhere multiple photomasks.

Thanks!

Erik

Mike H. wrote:Erik,
A straight surface etch is done by pulling all of the pieces of the cut design at once and blasting,as opposed to shading, in which the piece is given depth by sequentially pulling the pieces of the resist(design) ,starting with the front most perspective.
Hope that helps...........Mike

Actually Mike, what you are describing is called "stage carving" or just plain "carving" where each section is blasted to a different depth to give three dimensional contours to the blasted image. Shading is actually using a combination of pressure and distance to lighten or darken the etch, but it is just a surface etch... not depth to speak of.
It is well described on Norm Dobbins website http://www.etchmaster.com/information_s ... niques.htm

Tony

Erik,

One can selectively pull elements from a design made with photo resist as well. After applying the photo resist to the glass, the first pass or so with the blaster will blow through the lines forming the borders of each design element. This action is, in effect, the same operation as is accomplished with a vinyl cutting plotter, or with an X-acto knife cutting by hand; except the latter operations are done off the glass. Once the individual design elements in the photo resist have been separated, they can be sequentially pulled and blasted to give carved relief just the same as when this is accomplished with vinyl. I've used both 3 mil and 5 mil photo resist for carved relief in glass.

Cliff

True, but the design has to leave just the lines clear so that you blast the outline, then peel the inside.

Tony

Thanks All,
Tony maybe I should have used the word perspective not depth.
At any rate on one of the pieces,I am able to use clear resist and overlay
what little is left showing (as I had said the work was barely visible) and
re-etch over the top of that .
Mahalo.......Mike