It's not easy being Glow in the Dark

It always seems kitschy when you see glow in the dark items, but it isn't easy being Glow in the Dark, just try it. Glow in the dark also isn't cheap. Currently I pay about $80-90 for a quart of glow in the dark plastisol screen printing ink. The powder to mix a good glow in the dark is also not cheap if you want it to glow enough to make it have an impact. I've been printing with my glow in the dark inks to try and make stickers that pop at night. This is a good item for cell phones and they can even serve the purpose of helping to find a phone or remote control in a dark space. I can't get a good bond with the plastisol, so I am going to have to mix glow-in-the-dark powder into clear epoxy and see how that works.

My other half-baked ideas are a new printed stencil made with epoxy. I am patiently waiting for it to dry enough to peel it away from it's form so that I can try it tomorrow and see how it works. This new spray paint stencil technique should remove the small grid lines that I have when I make wire mesh stencils.

I have made a variety of test with different abrasive techniques on the epoxy and steel sheets I have made. My favorite item to use is a sponge sandpaper square, but I also tried two types of abrasive pads and some very fine sandpaper. After sanding I coated the veneers with salt water and I am hoping that a rusted surface will appear in a day or two and then these steel veneers can be used as a background for printing lighter colors onto.

I printed adhesive and epoxy today and applied powders to see how finished the surfaces look, not bad, but they top layer is going to be vulnerable to wear quicker than with a sealed epoxy finish. I also applied some adhesive backing to some epoxy experiments that didn't work out so that I could use the flawed pieces as stickers. I printed some adhesive to some line art and am attempting to transfer the line art print to glass surfaces just from the pressure against the glass. This may work well with an epoxy background that can adhere to the glass while it dries. It was wishful thinking to think the glue would be strong enough to just work the image off my transfer paper, but more time and wetter epoxy may help the process.