Good day everyone,
I have a customer who brought to me a photo of her daughter and
would like it duplicated into a charm. Her daughter is an aerialists
skier so the photo is of her in the air, twirling around.
Yes, I could shrink the photo, tape it to the metal and cut it out
but I thought if there was a way to actually have the photo made
into a charm that would be an option of her.
Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance,
Laurie
but I thought if there was a way to actually have the photo made into a charm that would be an option of her.
laser engraving.
put the photo under epoxy resin.
transfer product of some kind.
Yes, try Travis Serio at Rhudy’s Jewelers in North Carolina…he can
do it in CAD, produce it for you.
I have a machine that imprints 300 dpi into the metal. This is
Sterling Silver.
Susan
Dragons Fly Designs
Hi Laurie,
You can use metal clay imprinted by a photopolymer plate to create
the ‘photo’ part of your piece. Photopolymer plates are commonly
used for printing, labeling, signage, and printed circuit boards.
Photopolymer plates consist of either plastic or metal backing
coated with various thicknesses of UV sensitive co-polymers. Your
photo needs to be printed on a transparency - I use inkjet film and
a high dpi inkjet printer. The transparency is then overlaid onto
the photopolymer plate and exposed to a UV light source. The set-up
I use requires an exposure of 3 hours for highly detailed artwork
and photos. After exposing the plate, you will be able to see the
image on the plate. The plate is then washed in water - different
levels will be revealed dependent on the opacity of the image. The
plate is then dried (a hairdryer works great), and post-exposed for
15 minutes. To imprint the photo onto the metal clay, spray the
plate lightly with a silicon spray (like Armorall) and roll the clay
over the plate. You will be amazed at the level of detail. Any type
of photos or artwork can be transformed in this same manner. If you
haven’t used metal clay, there are many detailed resources online.
Remember to keep in mind that metal clay reduces in size during
firing proportionate to the amount of binder. So if the clay you use
has 11% of binder material, the shrinkage would be 11% and you would
have to plan the size of your photo accordingly.
My website has more detailed about making photopolymer
plates if you are interested: http://www.twoolivesstudio.com.
Gwen