My next challenge,

[stevers]

I had a Friend ask me to cast a picture for him. Lee wants a photo of some lillys under resin. I had him send me the picture he wanted to use. I sized it down and did some cropping and clean up. I also picked up some Avery labels, then I printed the pictures and mounted them on the tubes. I poured them and they are in the pot as we speak. I will check on them around 11:00.
The first set I tried failed. The labels pealed up at the seems. I E-mailed my instructor Bruce R and hopefully I have it figured out. I'll post later, wish me luck. Thanks
Here's the sheet before being trimmed and mounted,

 

[gketell]

Search for the Stamps Pen. He had problems with the stamps lifting and pre-coated them with something before casting to solve the problem. I think it was shellac but I won't swear to it so do the search and read up. Besides, it is a gorgeous pen!

GK

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

Steve,

What program do you use to manipulate and print the labels?

 

[stevers]

Scott,
I use HP Image Editor to size them. It allows me to size them by pixels or inches. Seems to work pretty good for that. Some manipulation I do with FoxFoto. I use paint for some stuff also. But mostly Image Editor. To print them I use the free downloadable templates from Avery.
Actually, I would like to find a good program for image editing. All of them I have are free downloads and can tend to be limited.

 

[stevers]

Well, I took a peak and this is what I have so far,

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I think I may have success this time. I'll know more later.

 

[stevers]

Greg, cant find the Stamp pen. How old is it? I used simple search and nothing came up.

 

[jttheclockman]

Steve

Question for you. I have never done something like that so I will rely on your experience. I see in the top picture the edge or line where the print ends, is that a problem to look at or does it disappear when turned down??? Or maybe is this something that can't be avoided??

 

[stevers]

John,
Do you meen the seem where the label meets in the middle? This line?

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[gketell]

Oops, my bad. It was posted to ThePenShop.
And yes, he used spray shellac to seal the stamps.

http://www.thepenshop.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5804&KW=stamp
This was Ryan's first cast. Very creative!!

Unfortunately I haven't seen anything new from him on either site since last November.

GK

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

Thanks! Where did you get the nice mold and which label # are you using?

 

[jttheclockman]

Yes Steve, that is the line I was refering to. By the way what program do you use to be able to draw within your photos??? That is cool.

 

[skiprat]

Steve, I haven't tried this, but I can't see a reason for it not to work. If the join / seam worries you then perhaps you could draw an oval or circle around the image and cut it out. Then you could paint/ polish the tubes before you stuck down the image on them. You could even colour the edges of the image with a marker pen.
Has anyone tried using double sided tape to hold down the image?

 

[stevers]

Scott, the mold is a Castin Craft brand, got it from my local hobby shop. The labels are Avery 8163.

John, the line you see is the seem we all keep talking about. Yes it shows up on the finished pen. Some of us are trying to come up with a way to make it less noticeable. The darker the color, the less noticeable it seems to be.

Steven, I don't get what you are getting at with the oval or marker on the label. And the latest set is working great as far as the seem laying down. I don't think any further concern is necessary as to the label adhering to the tube. It looks as tho I have that part under control. I think going with a good quality label solved that problem.

I'll be cutting them apart in a little while and will post some last photos before I send the blanks off to Lee.

 

[gketell]

If you paint the tube white then the difference in color due to the two layers of paper rather than one is minimized. But there will always be a line there because the different heights cause a shadow. I've thought about "scrubbing" the edge of the label to break up and soften the edge of the line. But maybe the "right" answer is as Skiprat says, don't do a full coverage label. Paint the tube the color you want then trim down the label around your design and put it onto the tube as an "onlay".

On the pen I did the design hid most of the seam and the rest I put under the clip.
Unfortunately I did creative photography on that one so you can't see the clip area of the label. []

GK

 

[stevers]

Greg, if you scrub the edge, that will only work on white work. The color of the paper would show on any other color you tried to use. I have though about purposely overlapping the seem and then using a straight edge to cut through both layers, then remove the overlapped layer. This would, in theory, leave a perfectly matched and straight single layer seem. I tried it with the cheap fed-x labels, but the lower layer started coming apart when I tried to peal off the top layer. It tried to peal the lower layer in half. Do you get what I mean? Like pealing the backing off the sticky paper, but this happened to the lower label layer. I'm going to try a few things over the next few weeks and see if I can make this work. I think it will be a good start to solving this problem.

 

[gketell]

Yup, I understand. I've heard of that method before but I could never get it, conceptually. You have two layers stuck down, you cut the overlap somewhere in the middle of the overlap and remove the top layer. But you still have the "cutoff" underneath that needs to be removed so you have to lift the top layer, lift the bottom layer (hoping that both those steps work without ruining your label) and then stick the top layer back down perfectly. Seems like it might work well with plastic labels but paper just seems (in my head anyway) too fragile. Let us know if you get it to work!!

GK

 

[stevers]

Thats a concern I had too. how well the lower layer is going to take to being lifted. The funny thing is, I was just thinking of plastic labels. But I was thinking of "clear" plastic labels. I was in Office Depot yesterday and saw clear plastic address labels. Paint the tube real nicely and lay a clear label over it. This may deserve some more thought. Think about it, and let me know of the good and bad things you come up with .
One bad thing I already thought of is, finger prints on the clear label. You would have to come up with a way to not touch the label at all. Even with gloves I'm afraid you would transfer marks or dust that would show thru the label. Every little dust particle would transfer thru. But the seem would be easier to do the overlay trim on.

 

[stevers]

Ok, it's out of the mold,

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[gketell]

The three different kinds of "clear" labels that we've purchased have all ended up being "semi-gloss"-clear. Not CLEAR. []

GK
ps You really gotta lose those spaces in your filenames. [B)]

 

[stevers]

I know, I just forgot the ()'s. It's all better now.