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Laura Zaruba
09-08-2004, 9:33 PM
Okay, since some of you asked and becasue I also enjoy viewing all your photos, attached are my latest marble items. They're becoming quite popular, however, an artist friend of mine has suggested I pay more attention to "good design" rules and therefore I am revising the layouts and working on some new designs too.

The pink ribbon plaques are more for fundraising & advertising than profit, but that's okay. Part of doing my own thing is so I can give back to people and things important to me.

Please comment and share your pictures too!

Dick Parr
09-08-2004, 10:09 PM
Very, very nice Laura! :) I don't see a thing wrong with the design. :confused: They are beautiful! :D

Keith Outten
09-08-2004, 10:47 PM
Very Nice Laura,

Tell me about the frames, it looks lke you used a black laquer frame but it's hard to tell from the photos. If you need a pair of baby feet (real prints) I would be glad to send you a set that I have used that work really well.

Laura Zaruba
09-08-2004, 11:28 PM
Thanks Dick. The more I look at them the more mistakes I can find, but my friend is a perfectionist and can sometimes drive me crazy over the slightest detail untrained eyes will never notice!

He has some very good points though...my spacing isn't uniform and I could make the image more powerful with better use of fonts and layout. However, I reminded him his ideas work well online and in print, but not necessarily for engraving. His idea was to layer the images with a large ribbon in the background, text on top, etc. Very pleasing design, but it's not working well for my purposes. Plus I like the small ribbon and rhinestone. I couldn't find pink paint or vinyl suitable for this project and everyone seems to like the sparkly touch! (Including myself)

Keith-I would love if you could send me a real graphic! (eite@mchsi.com) I searched EVERYWHERE for a decent graphic or photo to scan and finally decided a cleaned up clip art version would have to do for now.

The marble is Absolute Black from Lasersketch with polished edges and there is no frame. I color filled the etching with a silver backfilling ink (it has a wax-paint like consistency). If the photos turn out nice I only fill the text and frame.

However, either my laser is off or something because I'm noticing the frames aren't centered anymore so I've been leaving them off. Luckily the salesguy is coming to train me tomorrow.

mike wallis
09-09-2004, 1:40 AM
Good work Laura!

"Laser Sketch update"
I spoke with a guy at Lasersketch on the issue with the greyish tones a few of us are getting and he said that they have heard of that issue mostly with Epilogs. Since your engraving came out so well and you have a Epilog I pointed him to your earlyier post with your pic and he commented saying that he is almost positive that that materal is there Jet black Granite and not Marble. That would make sense since the results im getting on the exact same machine and same photo processing "Photograv" yeilds dramatically different results.
Im going to give there Black Granite a shot to see if this is the case.
Mike

Keith Outten
09-09-2004, 6:25 AM
Below is a footprint graphic taken from my Birth Certificate. I have used this graphic numerous times and it has worked well even though it is 53 years old :). I Hope this helps.

Laura Zaruba
09-09-2004, 8:16 AM
Mike:

Are you thinking the material I used is black granite, or what you used? I have both, Lasersketch Marble & Lasersketch Granite. All my photo items are with the marble. I did try something with granite andit was nothing like the black marble, but I didn't spend a lot of time on it so I plan to keep trying. Also, Lasersketch has a new super black granite coming out. I requested a sample when it's available.

On a side note, there's a photo of a large granite plaque with a photo at www.engravingetc.org (http://www.engravingetc.org). The post is "Granite Plaque" under the Show & Tell Gallery. The photo looks nice, almost as nice as the black marble. This gentleman said he got the granite from a countertop supplier.

Keith: Thanks a bunch!

George M. Perzel
09-09-2004, 9:14 AM
Hi Laura;
The edge of your marble looks to be profiled- it appears to have a fancy edge. Is this the way it was supplied by Lasetsketch? Thanks
George

George M. Perzel
09-09-2004, 9:16 AM
Keith;
You must have trouble getting shoes as I notice your right foot is considerably larger than your left. Do you have trouble walking???!!!
George

Laura Zaruba
09-09-2004, 9:26 AM
George:

The edges of the marble are beveled. I lasered the frame lines. I liked them at first but as I mentioned either the laser is off, or something isn't right because they are not centered anymore when I print to the laser. And removing the etched frame reduced the engraving time by almost half...so maybe that's not a bad idea going forward.

mike wallis
09-09-2004, 3:38 PM
Laura,
the person said at Lasersketch said that it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the Black marble and the super black Granite, and they had been shipping it but it is hard to keep in stock. What I got out of my conversation with him is that there may have been a mixup and you had got some of the super black Granite. Then again he was kinda short with me and maybe just wanted to get me off the phone "Friday".

Mike

Laura Zaruba
09-09-2004, 4:29 PM
Mike,

I'll have to check when I get my next order, should be today or tomorrow. Hope I ordered the right material...I got 3 cases this time!

George M. Perzel
09-09-2004, 5:56 PM
Laura;

Using vector lines (or rectangles) around the picture as a frame will eliminate the back and forth rastering and save a lot of time. You may want to put several vector lines very close together which will give the effect of a thicker line.
george

Keith Outten
09-09-2004, 9:44 PM
George,

I noticed the same thing concerning the size difference in the foot prints on my birth certificate. In fact both feet have always been the same so I must not have been cooperating with the nurse when they took my foot prints. I have always felt that I was hard-headed but I might have to reconsider my diagnosis...maybe I'm just uncooperative :) Nah...my familly will all vote hard-headed.

Laura and Mike,

I have been following your posts concerning Lasersketch with interest. I also requested and received their sample pack however I haven't had the time to use them yet. If either of you would be willing to share the PhotoGrav information for their product line I would appreciate your saving me the time. I have been working with the Thermark materials lately and hope to have some factual data to share in the next few days concerning my use of their LMM 28 product to engrave glass in color.

Laura,

I have also used borders on black marble most of the time, recently I have chnged my mind and the last two projects I engraved I left out the border as I felt it would detract from the subjects photograph. I expect that there are no hard and fast rules that should be applied concerning design of photographic jobs as you would on signs.

Laura Zaruba
09-09-2004, 10:05 PM
It seems parameter files are not uploadable. Anyone who would like the Lasersketch parameters for their Absolute Black Marble and Absolute Black Granite, please e-mail me at eite@mchsi.com.

They told me to load the parameter, then open the photo. I always select "Interactive Process" and the first thing you should select is the "Simulation On" tab. Set your speed, power, resolution and lens size FIRST. Otherwise you'll make all your adjustments for the wrong settings. After that is set I start at the beginning with "Adjust Gray" and work my way through.

After I process the photo, I usually save the engraved image and take a look at it in Photoshop since most could use some quick clean up work. After that's done, I save the image, open it in Corel and engrave.

I use an Epilog Mini 35 watt and for marble I scan photos at 600 dpi, open in Photoshop, reduce the image to the size to be engraved and reduce the resolution to 200-300. I use that same resolution in Photograv & Corel. Lasersketch suggested a power of 45 and speed of 45-50. However, my salesrep was suggesting other settings today so I'm still playing around with everything.

Also, I recommend Lasersketch's backfilling ink too. It really brightens things up. I've been using silver and just tried the white today. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone uses anything else on marble. (I've been trying to find a pink colorfill but no luck yet.)

Good luck and let's see some more pictures!

Mark Dickens
09-11-2004, 5:02 PM
We use LaserSketch marble and just have a couple of comments:

1. Their squares are not always truly square nor are they always the stated size. I had a box of their 12" tiles and at least two of them were oversized by a 1/16" - 1/8". This could be the problem in trying to center the borders, if the tile was a little bigger than it was supposed to be.

2. On the tiles with the finished edge (like Laura's tiles)...the tiles may be perfect in size, but the edges are hand finished and the bevels could vary in width, causing a perception that the lasered border wasn't centered.

3. One way to test your laser's ability to center an image is to simply take a piece of marble, wood, etc. Exactly measure the height and width, create a Corel Draw document of exactly the measured dimensions, add a small dot exactly in the middle of the document and then laser your material. Measure manually to see that the spot is where it ought to be.

4. Last but not least...they just raised their prices 25% effective September 1. If anyone knows of another supplier of absolute black marble, I'd love to know it!

Mark