Resin Guilloche

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Ed McDonnell

Ed McDonnell

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Still not where I want it to be, but I was happy enough with it to make it into a pen for use in my office.

Black guilloche pattern carved into an ivory resin core. Carved core is cast in clear resin. Since I planned to put the blank with black / gold hardware I added gold flecks to the black carved lines. It looked really cool in my head. Looks a lot less cool on the actual pen.

I've been trying to get this to where I want it for almost a year now. I keep getting closer, but not close enough. it's time to set it aside and try again next year.



All comments / critiques welcome.

Ed
 
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Don't kid yourself Ed. That looks great. Well, keep trying my friend, you will get there eventually and it will be a master's dream come true.

Ray
 
Thanks for the comments.

What's not to like?

With guilloche, spacing and symmetry are critical to creating a smooth flowing harmonious design. Rather than experimenting with a straight line design, I wanted to do something a little more challenging. I incorporated a lot of curves in the design. Some of my line spacing and curves are slightly off.

The finished design is created by overlapping a couple of different sub designs to build up the final pattern. In addition, I'm drawing the designs in two dimensions and then projecting them on to a 3D surface for carving. Making changes to the spacing and curves can get a little complicated.

This design also doesn't have an ideal spot to locate the clip. I need to work on that.

The single tube kits are quick and easy for experimenting. Once I get the bugs worked out I plan on using the design on a custom fountain pen.

Oh...and the gold flecks have got to go. I think plain black carving on white resin might be a better choice than black on the ivory resin. But I'm tempted to try inlaying bronze in the carving on ivory resin.

That's what I love about this hobby. Always something new to try.

Ed
 
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Looks great and hang on in there. you will crack it soon no doubt.

Would be great to see some pictures of the work in progress? would be good for us to get a feel of how much work you put into these, as i feel it is quite time consuming to do what you are doing with them :) keep up the great work. always a pleasure to see something a little different
 
parklandturner said:
Still not where I want it to be, but I was happy enough with it to make it into a pen for use in my office.

Black guilloche pattern carved into an ivory resin core. Carved core is cast in clear resin. Since I planned to put the blank with black / gold hardware I added gold flecks to the black carved lines. It looked really cool in my head. Looks a lot less cool on the actual pen.

I've been trying to get this to where I want it for almost a year now. I keep getting closer, but not close enough. it's time to set it aside and try again next year.



All comments / critiques welcome.

Ed
Click to expand...

Dude!! SHUT UP!! That pen is freakin' awesome!! How do you carve that? Looks perfect to me. Great job.
 
Must be very difficult to stare at that thing every day, knowing it's not up to your standards. Depressing. Well, I'm here to help. Just send it to me. I'll make sure you never have to look at it again. I'll keep it carefully hidden in my pocket, or my collection. :)

Just beautiful!
Russ
 
I hope this doesnt insult anyone but myself and my own ignorance, but could you explain what Guilloche is? In just looking at the pen, it looks like a laser was used to burn lines on a barrel. It does have a neat pattern, but without knowing what it is, it is hard to appreciate WHAT it is.
 
seamus7227 said:
I hope this doesnt insult anyone but myself and my own ignorance, but could you explain what Guilloche is? In just looking at the pen, it looks like a laser was used to burn lines on a barrel. It does have a neat pattern, but without knowing what it is, it is hard to appreciate WHAT it is.
Click to expand...

At it's simplest, Guilloche is a decorative design comprised of lines that are closely spaced with variations in the spacing and angles of the lines used to create pleasing (hopefully) patterns.

The lines are created a lot of different ways in different mediums. In the not too distant past, the use of engine lathes to engrave patterns on metal was very popular. And then there was the spirograph. Anybody who played with a spyrograph as a kid created Guilloche with ink on paper.

In this application I'm engraving (I think I said carving in the original post, but engraving is a more accurate description) the lines in PR resin using the DOL that I built. I engrave the lines 0.01" deep using a 30 degree cutter (with a 0.003" tip). That means the design line width is about 0.0056". Since I end up removing material between the various steps I may end up with slightly shallower and narrower lines in the finished pen.

I don't know if a laser could be used to achieve the same results on PR, but I have to believe that a laser with enough resolution could almost certainly be used to burn a design on some sort of base medium. I don't have a laser so I can't really answer that. Maybe some day....

The first challenge is designing all the lines to bend and weave so that they create attractive designs and not just a random mess. Once the artistic design work is done then choices have to be made on how the design will be implemented in a physical medium. Those choices will be largely driven by the tools you have available to you. I use my DOL. There is a link to a really nice video in the library where RichL uses a straight line engine to create Guilloche patterns on metal.

Here's the link:

Pen Barrel Guilloche - Argent Blue - YouTube

Hope that helps. I'm certainly not an expert, so apologies in advance to anyone who is and who spotted anything I may have got wrong.

Ed
 
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BradG said:
Looks great and hang on in there. you will crack it soon no doubt.

Would be great to see some pictures of the work in progress? would be good for us to get a feel of how much work you put into these, as i feel it is quite time consuming to do what you are doing with them :) keep up the great work. always a pleasure to see something a little different
Click to expand...

Hi Brad - I think people would get a kick out of seeing a highlights video. Sadly, I'm lacking any video capabilities. I can try and take pictures of the work in progress next time around, but I'm not sure how interesting that would be. Nothing to lose I suppose. Let's see if I can remember to take pictures as I do my next whatever I do.

Ed
 
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