Sticker Bricks - Acrylic vs. Epoxy vs Ink Jet Stickers

I have been working with adhering materials to vinyl sticker paper, which is a difficult surface to attach things to, and found that I can add some layers of adhesive acrylics that will work like a gesso on the vinyl sticker paper. This then allows me to screen print or attach molded veneers to the sticker paper. My motif for the designs to use has once again been brick patterns.

My earlier batches of stickers have had some time to weather outside and certain reinforcements haven't panned out to be successful, like rice paper or other paper based backings, because they continue to warp the shape of epoxy. I did find that reinforcing the epoxy with fiberglass created an excellent stiffness in the final stickers, but it does add some weight, work and cost to the final product. I like the idea of making extremely strong durable stickers with epoxy and fiberglass is an attractive concept, as they could be used to protect sub layers like a brick version of grip tape. The smoother the layer is that the vinyl sticker is going onto the better, but always the edges would be somewhat exposed if it is being used to cover an object, like cardboard or a screen.

Printing acrylic onto the vinyl paper may be the simplest and best application for a sticker and by using a wide mesh screen and a thick stencil I can get a slightly raised effect, although it is nothing like the depth created by using a molded piece and then adhering it to the vinyl. However, it is lighter and easier to make with some level of durability that is built into the vinyl sticker itself. Every time I go to use one of the stickers on an object I realize that it isn't really flat and smooth, so I don't want to waste the sticker on it. The top layer of my silk screens is very flat, but the screens have to be cleaned off from the residue of old ink, so I haven't tried that either. I did experiment with one sticker by covering it with epoxy, but by the time the epoxy dried the dirt and drips made it look much worse that the original acrylic looked by itself. I may just have to break down and use vinyl inks on the vinyl stickers, which is how they are supposed to be made, but I have never been a fan of the smell and cleaning required to use those materials.

The brick panels with acrylic or epoxy can be used as a brick background for other work, like a canvas with gesso, although the epoxy would be much harder paint onto. I have recently purchased some vinyl sticker paper that can be printed on with an inkjet printer, but I am suspect of it's ability to weather without a coating of some sort. That paper is expensive too, but prints on it look great and all of my production techniques can be ignored if something simply looks good. Who really cares if an item has texture these days since stickers are used on thin devices like phones and car bumpers and the thinness of the printed stickers will allow them to bend easily. Just for the sake of argument I think I am going to do a brick pattern on a sticker sheet to compare the ink jet to the acrylic to the epoxy stickers.