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I engraved the in-laws cups with their logos and even with my tweaks, it blew. I didn't ruin the cups, but the one logo for spouse's brother looks a bit rinky-dink homemade, and I struggled with the small roman style lettering on Becca's enough that I don't really have a desire to do more anytime soon.
I should have approached the brother's logo differently. It has a rectangular solid fill area with small text in the negative ("holes" in the fill). Very common thing. I had switched the font from his weirdo pointy font to a plain sans serif, cause I knew there's absolutely no way I am getting the details in the weirdo pointy font at 6mm. But the fill field around it meant that I was engraving AROUND the tiny letters, plus filling in the whole bar. Naturally if you're "coloring" the fill part it makes sense to want to use long horizontal strokes above and below the lettering. But then it's impossible to keep matching horizontal strokes in the tiny spaces between the letters. So I had to use vertical strokes for the whole fill area so it would all have the same light reflectivity. It ends up looking like someone drew the logo in chalk on a chalkboard, and then turned the piece of chalk on the side to color it in. There's patchiness and tiny gaps and the individual strokes are visible. Not clean as one would want for a logo. Like, handmade isn't impressive if it doesn't look good.
What I should have done is treated the fill area as a crisp outline and not tried to "color" it in. Then I could have engraved the small text normally and saved myself a ton of effort.
They have 3 kids, they're used to getting wonky handmade crap, I am sure they will enjoy the cups anyway. These were on plain steel cups and the effect is subtle, silver on silver. They look fine from a few feet away. But working on the cups up close magnifies all the micro fuckups and I am such a perfectionist, I'm laughing to myself about how this is such dogshit. I had wondered if I would potentially take on logos as custom work if asked, and the answer is fuck no, go to a machine for that. So I will stick with more organic shapes and artsy designs and be careful about how I interpret larger solid fill areas in the future. Fine by me, logos are mostly boring anyway. (But lucrative, sigh.)
I got my new carbide bits and they are TINY. At first I thought they just sent me an empty bubble mailer. They worked fantastic though and I was so glad they arrived when they did. Becca's logo has a dandelion with all the detailed seed fluff. I was able to match her graphic line for line and the effect is delicate and shimmery. The only problem is now I want carbide bits in larger sizes. The new bits are like 1mm, and the tool came with a ~2mm, and then everything I have that is larger is diamond tipped that gives scratchy lines. I'm over scratchy lines, they're so last week. NO DIAMOND TIPPED, ONLY CARBIDE. (NO DANA, ONLY ZUUL.)
The silicone boot thing for the cup bottoms works great. I didn't realize resting the cup bottom on the table was amplifying the engraving noise. The silicone acts as a sound dampener and it prevents slipping.
The more work I do the more I compare/contrast with tattooing and embroidery and the better I begin to understand how to work with the machine and think through the art to get the effect I want. I need to figure out what I can use to block areas off like a frisket. It has to be clear, so I put it over the design, cut out areas with an exacto, go to town. I was thinking packing tape (cheap, already have it) or vinyl transfer material. But I'd have to do that after I was done with the watercolor/toner process because peeling off the adhesive will wreck the temporary image. I don't know what material will hold up long enough to the polishing burr. But if I can figure out a simple way to "block" areas of a design, that would be a big leap forward for broad shading effects. Will have to think more on it.
I also really want to get my hands that stainless steel black patina. The ability to add true values could be a showstopper. Like, apply it first, then engrave through it. I wants it.
I have three black cups, three rainbow cups and two generic stemless wine cups left. I'm mulling over what I want to do. Some part of me keeps yelling about wanting a stag beetle, but I'm like, nobody's going to buy a stag beetle cup. People don't like bugs. DON'T CARE, STAG BEETLES ARE COOL, WANT IT. I am trying to let myself have fun here. Sometimes you mix money and art and all you get is endless drudgery. If I have a crazy whim, I'm gonna try to make it happen. Stag beetle it is. The stemless wine cups are going to get henna/mehndi patterns next, mostly to figure out how to get a good transfer on the curved base with a repeating pattern. Everyone likes mehndi patterns, those will sell, and they're great for practicing repetitive strokes.
I've been obsessively working through options and ideas for the craft fair display and product photography. I've figured out that cups sitting on a table have their engraved sides angled toward the ground, so it's hard for customers to see the design from above. So I think I can use a shoe rack (one that has an angled platform for the shoe shelf) as a lightweight elevated cup display. I bought a cheap round slate cheese board for product photos because the metal cups will look really nice sitting on dark matte slate. I think I can engrave my website name into the slate to be extra fancy. So far I've learned that photographing shiny engraving on a shiny cup is miserable. I will def need to take little product videos that show how the light hits the engraving when it moves. So I'm going to have to get a little motorized rotating display thing because I don't need anyone judging my manicure or lack thereof. Put the slate on that, put the cup on the slate. I tried to find a photo backdrop and nothing impressed me, so I think I'm going to take inspiration from the luminary christmas cards I made and cut an islamic patterned lattice into a sheet of heavy watercolor paper. It might look nice in soft focus behind the cup.
So far I'm in this project to the tune of about $150 for all the cups, bits and burr sets and some extras, like safety glasses and the slate cheese board and the domain name. Not terrible. But honestly am looking at prob another $4-500 to get the tent, rest of the vending setup, and a decent product order to work on. Haven't told spouse about the business idea yet. Not because I am worried he won't be supportive, but because a) I don't think he really cares what I'm doing as long as I'm happy, and b) I want to have my duckies in a row so I can show him the firepower of my fully armed and operational battle station. I need to get him in on the loop soon because ... he might be gone in April for training for the new job. It's been this vague thing on the horizon for so long that I have almost taken for granted that we'll always be anticipating it. But spouse has jumped through all the hoops. Nobody he knows of has not gotten the rubber stamped job offer at this stage. We're on month 8 since he began the process in August.
Yesterday spouse announced we had to go suit shopping so he'd have the necessary professional work attire in time for training. We made the salesperson very happy, because he got two nice black suits and extra matching trousers and dress shirts and ties and new dress shoes and all the stuff. What's that Ariana Grande lyric? I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it. I think we bought everything the salesperson suggested. Everything properly measured and fitted. But spouse deserves it, he never goes clothes shopping. The last time he got professional work clothing was 4 years ago. I want him to feel like a million bucks when he goes to training. I know he worries about being an older candidate, and not having as impressive a background as others. I don't want him fussing with a cheap bad fitting suit and feeling like he doesn't belong. He definitely belongs.
Spouse is still being cautious, saying stuff like, well if I get stuck with these suits I can still wear them to weddings. It's tough to get excited when you anticipate the rug being pulled out from underneath you, because you've had bad luck before. He has been working toward this the whole time we've been together, nine years now. It has always been the goal, just like me learning to tattoo was always the goal. I am so proud of him. I don't care about the work he does, but the fact that he set a very ambitious goal for himself, went for it and kept trying until it happened is really special. I've known spouse for 16 years, we met when he was an apathetic homeless 21 year old sleeping on other people's couches and struggling to keep a working car so he could keep a job (and sometimes failing). I watched him mold himself into the person he is today, and still keep the best parts of himself. He's earned every bit of success.
He's going to be gone for 5 months and it'll just be me and the kitties and a bunch of cups.
Wait ... I think this means I get stuck doing all the packing again. Son of a bitch.