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David Dustin
12-30-2008, 9:28 AM
We had reasonably good success this Christmas providing memorial tree ornaments.

They were made from 1/4" extruded acrylic so the cost of material was low.

We used 2 main shapes, one was an outline of a Christmas Tree and the other was a modified Angel outline.

We would place images of loved ones that had passed away for local families.

When I say reasonable, I mean we were are at a low price point to begin with ($10-$15).

Our process pipeline went something like this:
Scan the image (unless it was already digital, but that was rare)
Use Photoshope to edit/enhance (most were old photo's)
Use Photograv 3.0 (paying particular attention to intensity graph)
Use the HPDFO (Universal) lens due to the ultra small spot size.

Time wise it is still a low profit area (although we did make about 15 copies of one of the ornaments for a large family) because of all the processing.
It is our hope to generate additional work in that all these families work somewhere and will tell their friends about us.

David

Steve McKee
12-30-2008, 8:10 PM
Sounds interesting David, wouldn't happen to have a photo of one of those would you?

Mike DeRegnaucourt
12-30-2008, 9:13 PM
Hi David,

Did the photos turn out well on extruded acrylic? Most of the time, it's cast acrylic that provides better "white" or "frosting". From my experience, I have not had the best of luck getting a nice "frosting" when using extruded. I'd love to see a photo of how one of them turned out for you.

Congrats on your success! :)

David Dustin
12-31-2008, 2:14 PM
Yeah we had all but given up on extruded Acrylic.
The combination of the HPDFO lense, Photograv 3.0 and Photo Shop processing make it viable.

There is an image using this process in this thread, 3rd page:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=958393&page=3

David

Steve Clarkson
12-31-2008, 6:13 PM
David.....since it's extruded, I assumed you color-filled.....right?

David Dustin
01-01-2009, 8:30 AM
No we just lased it...

David