Photographs on Tile

[Carol Barbero]

Good Morning All:
I just got my laser on Friday and practiced all weekend. I really like doing the tile. I did a white tile and applied black paint over it and then wiped it off. It came out pretty good, but it seems to me, this approach is best suited to pen & ink type drawings rather than photos. Is there a way to get a really good quality photo on a tile?

Thanks in advace :D

Carol

[Dave Johnson29]

Is there a way to get a really good quality photo on a tile?


Hi Carol,

Do a search here for Onur Cakir. He has done some amazing tiles. He also includes settings etc.

[Casey Wigginton]

For the lazy,
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=101779

[Gary Hair]

Carol,
You can simply paint a white tile black, or a black tile white, and laser away. I recommend PhotoGrav to process your image, but there are ways to do it manually as well.

Gary

[Carol Barbero]

Gary:
I've seen posts about Ceramark. Will regular acrylic paint works as well?

[Ray Mighells]

Here's a sample of photos on common HD ceramic tiles $.16 each for a 4.25" sq tile craft acrylic for fill. The one shown is from a new album I posted on http://www.PictureTrail.com/razaxnstuff with about 21 pics on tile including a few examples of 3D with a 35Watt Epilog (multiple passes) The attachment shows difference between one and two passes.

[Tim Bateson]

Ray, What technique do you use? What kind of paint?

[Mark Winlund]

If you want to do tiles, bite the bullet and sublimate them. Full color, high resolution, last a long time. The tile needs to be coated with polyurethane... most engraving suppliers sell them along with coffee cups, etc. Once you have the heat press and the ink, it is very cheap!

Mark

[AL Ursich]

In post 4 of this thread I posted pictures of Sublimated Color Tiles. A Quilt Picture on a Quilt Rack.

AL

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=110451

:rolleyes:

[Gary Hair]

Gary:
I've seen posts about Ceramark. Will regular acrylic paint works as well?

Cermark is available for glass and ceramic but in limited colors. Acrylic paint works fine, that's what I have used as well as enamel and laquer. Nothing sticks really well to ceramic, these are more for practice than anything.

Gary

[George Brown]

If you want to do tiles, bite the bullet and sublimate them.

Do you print on #20 paper with an ink jet printer using regular ink and then sublimate that?

[Ray Mighells]

Hi Tim - looks like this thread is going off on a tangent. I don't know what you mean by technique. I just process my photos as best I can in Photopaint using my very limited experience, and then run it thru Photgrav. Machine settings are a crap shoot. Every machine is different. Ceramic tile is pretty consistent with the brand I get from HD. I have an Epilog 35W and have pretty much settled on 40 Speed and 100 power and vary the dpi according to the graphic. 600 dpi will give you darker area that will appear blotchy on some stuff, but you might not want that on a photo. You just have to use your best guess. At $.16 per tile it's cheap enough to experiment. You can get several samples on one tile. To get a decent color fill, you have to get through the surface glaze. So 2 passes at 40 speed allows decent fill, but you've used 12 to 15 minutes laser time. Is it worth it?? For fill, the easiest I've found is crafts acrylic. Put on a couple drops and smear it around and rub it in, then wipe clean. I suppose if someone had the talent and the inclination, multiple colors could be used. Hope this helps.

[onur cakir]

If you want to do tiles, bite the bullet and sublimate them. Full color, high resolution, last a long time. The tile needs to be coated with polyurethane... most engraving suppliers sell them along with coffee cups, etc. Once you have the heat press and the ink, it is very cheap!

Mark

I sell laser tiles twice expensive than sublimation tiles but architechs prefers lasertile more than subl. tiles.

I think lasertile looks much more elegant than sublimation tiles.