More prototyping toys: Schtomps
Dec. 27th, 2009 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikSo I think I've got the six different jar designs I want to etch based on friends' ideas. For those of you coming to FC I can give them to you there. I'll drop email to folks in the next week to let them know and find out shipping addresses if they're not attending.
Next up in the 'you benefit from my experimentation' department: custom rubber stamps!
I'm currently teaching the laser how to do proper, high-detail, long-lasting rubber stamps. It's a bit of a challenge as you have to have the right materials and do a good bit of design tweaking to make fine details show up without crumbling during use. So far the experiments go well.
I've ordered a 20-piece bag of these:
They're 3/4" round (about 19mm diameter) and made of plastic. The cap is a little ink pad. Once the die is carved out of polymer-rubber on the laser it gets glued to the holder and becomes a cute little stamp. (UPDATED) Here's a pic of a few that I've thrown together so far:
(Update #2:) Thanks to Astolpho and his lovely wife who dropped by the shop and left me with a few test ink-pads, I'm finally getting to see the results!
Even at tiny sizes I've been able to get some pretty good detail. The actual stamp-bodies aren't in yet (they don't arrive until the first week of the new year) so I can't test impressions yet. I suspect I have a good bit of tweaking yet to do.
My costs on these are pretty low, materials-wise. Once I get some practice with the art-modifications to make the dies, the labor cost should be pretty low too. My hope would be to sell these to artists for them to either use on their materials for sale (like a signature- or studio-stamp) or to be sold directly to their customers as a nifty toy.
So, any of my artist friends want to submit some designs? I'll make a handful of these for free just for the practice and give 'em to you at FC. Also, if you want custom stamps bigger than these .75" dies, no problem; I can make them up to index-card sized if you need, mounted on wood or acrylic blocks. Just drop me an email with your ideas.
Next up in the 'you benefit from my experimentation' department: custom rubber stamps!
I'm currently teaching the laser how to do proper, high-detail, long-lasting rubber stamps. It's a bit of a challenge as you have to have the right materials and do a good bit of design tweaking to make fine details show up without crumbling during use. So far the experiments go well.
I've ordered a 20-piece bag of these:
They're 3/4" round (about 19mm diameter) and made of plastic. The cap is a little ink pad. Once the die is carved out of polymer-rubber on the laser it gets glued to the holder and becomes a cute little stamp. (UPDATED) Here's a pic of a few that I've thrown together so far:
(Update #2:) Thanks to Astolpho and his lovely wife who dropped by the shop and left me with a few test ink-pads, I'm finally getting to see the results!
Even at tiny sizes I've been able to get some pretty good detail. The actual stamp-bodies aren't in yet (they don't arrive until the first week of the new year) so I can't test impressions yet. I suspect I have a good bit of tweaking yet to do.
My costs on these are pretty low, materials-wise. Once I get some practice with the art-modifications to make the dies, the labor cost should be pretty low too. My hope would be to sell these to artists for them to either use on their materials for sale (like a signature- or studio-stamp) or to be sold directly to their customers as a nifty toy.
So, any of my artist friends want to submit some designs? I'll make a handful of these for free just for the practice and give 'em to you at FC. Also, if you want custom stamps bigger than these .75" dies, no problem; I can make them up to index-card sized if you need, mounted on wood or acrylic blocks. Just drop me an email with your ideas.
