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A graphic designer came to me today & wants a sign done for cancer clinic. What he has designed are individual buterflies, which will be approx. 4" square flying from a hand that will be mounted to a 4x6' substrate. Butterflies and hand will have to have some thickness. These butterflies will be added one at a time and have to be engraved. Copy will be real small 3/16-1/4". Butterflies will be a custom purple with yellow outline. I've considered screenprinting purple onto yellow Sintra/Trovicell, die cutting shapes or computer routing but don't know if it can be engraved, maybe I will have to use engraving stock? Any ideas would really be appreciated-it's been one of those weeks!
------------------ Colleen Henderson Signs Now, Thunder Bay, ON signsnow@tbaytel.net
Posts: 140 | From: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jun 1999
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Colleen.......don't know exactly your intent, but you COULD form and sand the butterfly wings out of 6mm Sintra. The hand could also be formed/sanded by laminating two pieces of Sintra. Sintra actually sands very well nd you can seal the exposed sanded edge by judiciously using Acetone on a cloth. (with gloves, of course) The component parts can then be glued together. IE: wings to body, bodies to hand etc. The wing colors can be vinyl film colors. If you're good with a blade you can form the film patterns right on the wings. By making component parts you give real dimension to the butterflies. If you want exotic patterns in the wings, use the film as a template and airbrush your colors on. Maybe??????? :^)
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana Mkntraks@digisys.net Carving America into a better shape! PEACE, through superior chisel-power! We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)
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Thanks guys, it was a little difficult to explain, but my biggest problem is finding something with dimension that can also be engraved with tiny copy, on a one at a time kind of basis as donors donate money. I may have to use engraveable stock over sintra or something.
------------------ Colleen Henderson Signs Now, Thunder Bay, ON signsnow@tbaytel.net
Posts: 140 | From: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jun 1999
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Use engraving stock. Sintra doesn't engrave well because it is so soft...especially those small letters. I don't know whether you meant the butterflys were a combination of purple and yellow, or if some were purple and some were yellow. You can get both purple engraving stock and yellow engraving stock, but not a combination. The purple will reveal white when engraved, the yellow reveals black or blue. You could also use a reverse engrave stock whereby the engraved letters are paint filled from the back. You could then use whatever colour enamel you wanted for the text.
Hope this helps.
PS. Just reread your post. If you mean "dimension" as in wings sticking out from body, you'll have big trouble getting them engraved later. You'd have to engrave the bodys before you attach the wings. If you mean "dimension" as just material thicker than vinyl, then engraving stock will work well. We're doing the same type of thing here only with childrens hands instead of butterflys. Each little hand is engraved and applied to the wall for each donation.
------------------ Diane Crowther, Metaline Graphics Ltd., Nova Scotia, Canada, ID #285
[This message has been edited by Diane Crowther (edited May 05, 2000).]
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Hi Colleen. Just thought I'd throw in one other possible idea that may or may not suit the situation. Could you possibly use Edge prints on clear? These can easily be perimeter cut to fit the butterfly shape, peeled off, applied to a thin substrate like polystyrene, and cut out with an x-acto or even scissors. The polystyrene can then be easily bent to form the butterfly wingspan, and a body attached with a dab of adhesive. The Edge prints could also easily accommodate your small text, and/or the donor's names. Just an additional possibility, hope the suggestion helps.
------------------ Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail kjmlhenry@home.
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Just an idea here, Design the butterflies, perhaps from some available clips, recolor them to you standards. Have the doner names added to the wings one by one on the computer, and have them printed with a fusion decal machine (someone on the board has one, or probably several do) apply them to the dimensionally cut siloettes, and da da....If the decals with names eventually fade they can be replaced as they need be, with backup files on. But here I think you could create different varieties of butterflies in your color choices, and get a whole lot more effect from the project, with a whole lot less work....Cheers, Bronzeo
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Thanks so much everyone for replies. Had to give price to graphic designer on Friday, yeah lots of notice, what else is new, so just winged a high price. Will probably use yellow engraving stock as purple is real oddball purple that they need and screenprint purple to have yellow outline around outside & cut to shape, still not quit sure about engraving may use reverse stuff so I can get yellow copy. will have to figure out when & if I get job. Thanks for all your help.
------------------ Colleen Henderson Signs Now, Thunder Bay, ON signsnow@tbaytel.net
Posts: 140 | From: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jun 1999
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