3-d food printer

Can it do this? If so, I'll go to mars.

Still I found the time to clean out some screens and make a few new candles and glasses

This is an image of a candle made with some ink and a sticker. The idea with the paint behind the seven day candle is that it will allow me to use any color combination of sticker design on top and the edges of the sticker blend in better with the paint than with the glass. I also applied some stickers to some wine bottles that I cut into glasses that can be used from drinking and/or for candles. I haven't had the time to pour any wax into the glasses, but my son seems to enjoy using one of the glasses to drink from around the house. I'll see how the sticker survives in the sink before I go further with that concept. I gave up on printing directly on the glass for now because it doesn't seem worth the effort for the mess it makes.

Urethane resins are inconsistent - epoxy resin is more reliable, but requires patience

I was in a rush to see my new mold the other day, so I purchased some urethane resin, smooth-on 326, with a medium strength and 5-10 minute pot life. I had surprisingly good results and started retooling my setup to run with the 326. I used up my 2 pint kit and on a Saturday afternoon I visited my local supplier of all things molded, Douglas and Sturgess, but they were out of the affordable pint kits. I was in the framework that urethane was now working for me and went ahead and tried the Task 9 Urethane resin by Smooth-On as a replacement. The results were not the same and I was left feeling like I wasted an entire day. It may be the moisture, which the sales agent at Douglas and Sturgess warned me about, or it may be incompatible with the pigments I am using, like aluminum bronzing pigments and steel powder. The results were more bubbles than ever, with pits and holes, and when I submerged the pieces in water to clean off the mold release, they curled and buckled to the point that they were not useful.

The good news was that I got a workable batch out with the Smooth on 326 and would use that again in a hurry, but I switched back to epoxy for a final run. Patience is all that it ask for and now that I used my mold once and no what to expect, I realized I don't need to be in such a hurry. Going back to the epoxy did have some risk in that a mold with the urethane could react differently and stick to the epoxy or break down the mold, but it didn't and a new batch of emblems made with epoxy emerged the next day. The firmness and the rigidity of the epoxy is superior to the urethane and the consistency of the epoxy makes it worth the wait.

The information that I gained from this weekend is that urethane can be used, like epoxy, but the Smooth On 326 is better than the other urethane resins for imitating epoxy resin with powder pigments. Also, I can go back and forth with my molds using urethane plastic when I am in a hurry, but the slower setting epoxy is a more detailed and better final product.

Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere, but nor a stick to pop.

I poured an 8 ounce batch of urethane mixed with steel pigment and it went into approximately 30 pieces in a variety of molds. The bubbles formed the longer the urethane was in the mixing container, so as I went deeper into the pour the more bubbles appeared in my work. I popped a few of the easy to get to bubbles, but gave up on the pieces that had batches of small bubbles. I'm just going to let them set and see what happens when I sand them down. The only use I have for these pieces is raised sticker emblems, key chains or magnets and I'm not that worried about the back side currently. These may end up being give-a-ways for the Y-Que store in Los Angeles.

Selling things is harder than it seems, so I don't really think I can sell this stuff until it's been tested. Secondly, most everything on earth has already been made by companies much more professionally than I have done. The world of etsy and printerest may be a market for craft items, but I haven't really spent enough time developing a profile on these websites to think that I can actually sell stuff there. My own website gets a lot of traffic, but t-shirts are the products there and these emblems may be able to blend in with my printed shirts since most of the designs are the same. I like the idea of proliferating the emblems by giving them away and then at least they may end up spread around Los Angeles versus randomly distributed through the web.

To isolate what makes these pieces different is a bit of a mental exercise. Over time I have worked with a wide range of materials and developed some exclusive techniques at mold making and casting that allow me to make these items, but to identify what makes them different isn't obvious from the outside looking in.

The first technical development is my methods for taking a high contrast image and creating a relief and mold without having to use a laser or hi-tech equipment. The cost for the mold is relatively cheap, unless I make a silicon version, then I have to add the cost of the silicon. The silicon mold will be more useful for a wide range of materials. The second character of my work is the mixing of the metallic particles, cold casting, to create a metallic finish that is also resistant to weathering. The third character is the thinness of the pieces which allows me to place the pieces on other materials like magnet sheets and sticker paper, thus making a emblem type of item that can be used as a sticker. Now with the urethane I can speed up my production time and take my work with me to make things on the go. I have also been adding a second color to the background and creating a layered effect that is more colorful than just the monotone reliefs. Together I have finished photographically produced emblems that can be made cheaply out of plastic and yet look like metal.

Urethane plastics and discharge inks are unrelated materials, except where I work

I've fallen into my trap of experimentation instead of working and now that I have gone down the rabbit hole I see a new world of possibilities. My previous post indicated how I have regressed to working smaller due to the expense of materials and how epoxy is a great casting material, but it takes forever to set up. I wanted to test a new mold making process, but decided to try some Smooth-On Urethane plastic because it sets way quicker than epoxy, like 30 minutes to an hour. Previously I had not been successful with Urethane finishes because it did not seem to finish as smooth as epoxy did, but I was wrong about this. It appears I was spending too much time mixing my pigments into the urethane and when I sped this process up, the urethan poured smooth and with less bubbles than I previously had gotten.

My second test with the urethane was to use aluminum pigment and sand it down to get a metallic finish. With a bit of quick sanding, 100 grit sandpaper, it worked too and finished with a metallic top surface just like epoxy and polyester resin. Next I am going to try it with some steel / iron pigments to try and get a rusty metal finish and in all probability this should work. The cost of urethane is significantly less than epoxy and the quicker set times are a lifesaver because it frees me up to make more designs when I can see the results of each mold quicker.

In the middle of playing with the urethane, I pulled out some Wilflex Plascharge base and mixed some discharge plastisol. I had been meaning to try this for months and finally got around to it with the idea of making discharge transfers. The discharge transfers did not work, but I mixed both glow in the dark ink and fluorescent red inks with the plascharge base and got great results. The finish was light and the glow effect was pretty good. Even the fluorescent red popped on a black t-shirt without a white under print. I don't like the smell, but the results are fantastic for printing on darks. Finally our Pluto Never Forget t-shirt can be done without 2 screens. I haven't done the wash test, but I don't see why this should fail.

Photos of magnets

Emblems

Materials make the mold - supply list

There are so many things I think I need to complete my projects, but with a limited budget I just can't afford to invest in making the types of pieces that I am drawn to. I like making the larger brick panels that are made inside of recycled screen printing frames, but they require in excess of 20-30 ounces of Epoxy, plus some pigments and some plaster / mortar to make them solid enough to be used as a table top or panel on a wall. I put the cost of each panel at $10-15/ea, not to mention my time or the frame cost. This starts the cycle of reconsideration for my projects, because I then think of how I can make things that are smaller using the same techniques. One panel uses the same amount of materials that I could use to make 20 smaller pieces, and so it goes. I am now rethinking my project, before I run out of materials from last year, and re-inventing my magnets, which are significantly smaller and easier to display.

Here are some photos of my most recent batch of photo fresco refrigerator magnets.

Deciding my future is like reading a scattering of bones

Every year I start out in a similar way by incidentally cleaning up my backyard and finding my work from the previous year. I usually have no interest in continuing my work on frescoes and/or pieces of artistic fabrication, but as I pick up the broken pieces the ideas of what I had done previously perk my curiosity. I sort through my yard, which resembles more of a war zone to prepare for a dump run and analyze as I go what survived the water, mud and wind. What survived and what didn't? What is useful and what isn't? What is aesthetically pleasing and what isn't? These are my three major deciding factors and not surprisingly there aren't many things that are worth continuing into any future production.

The year I realized that the things that were made extremely thin, buckled and broke. Things that were made without anchors came apart or separated from their frames. Things that were covered by thick layers of protective coatings had no texture and were not appealing, even though they survived and were easy to clean. I still like things that are useful, because things like tables and windows are around because they are in use. Some things are good half baked ideas, but due to the expense or lack of defining motivation, I haven't any reason to pursue them. So where did the bones land and what is worth pursuing into the future?

A few pieces with epoxy coatings as the top surface are the most interesting survivors because they did not bend or break and could easily be picked out of the rubble. Some cement pieces were also survivor's but their overall weight was not appealing. Some pieces that had plywood holding them together were indeed the strongest when it came to structures, but that is for more of a backing and building concept, not an aesthetic factor. As the day lingered on and I found some of my left over materials I started the cycle again by pouring a thin gel-coat layer of epoxy in a brick mold using marble and red pigment for a brick like finish.

In the end an exterior tile is sort of what I am after, but without a kiln. I found a piece of backing that is supposed to be used as a backing when attaching tile to a bathroom wall and I am thinking about sandwiching that as a panel in between the epoxy and a grout filling on the other side. The epoxy is a very-weather resistant material, but because it absorbs heat it's most likely not a good exterior finish. The layering of a flat surface that can work as a backing for other materials like grout is a way to keep the epoxy stable, as well as, provide an interface for finishing the other side. Even if the other side is sealed with plywood instead of cements or tile like materials the idea that the epoxy is bonded to something that can work like strong back surface is good for keeping the epoxy in the frame. I have considered using inserts for the back side, but the back side finish is only important once a purpose or final use for these frames is determined and I haven't figured out where these pieces can find a final use. I am building them with the idea that they may be a component of a larger piece, used on their own as a table or even used as decoration without a specific functional used. Ideally this layering of materials should create a stable weather-resistant pieces that are dimensionally stable for years and years.

Other projects worth mention are the epoxy emblem base and the carbon fiber backed canvas. Both of these items are potentially useful in making emblems or stickers and possibly they can even be used together. As for t-shirt creations that are only mentioned here because I don't have time to post these concepts elsewhere is the split peel transfer as a way to make a soft feeling screen printed design that can be processed like a heat set transfer. The fact is that t-shirts are still my cash crop, so I am better served to print and develop t-shirt ideas for my day job and to keep this photo fresco stuff as a extra-curricular activity. I am working on a way to compete with DiscountMugs.com, a discount t-shirt printing company, in order to increase my sales of custom screen printing jobs and by doing this I should be able to keep moving forward, without having to sell anything, with my research into the photo-fresco concept.