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George Skinner
01-20-2004, 9:27 PM
Here is a picture of a 2ft. by 3 ft. laser etched marble wall mural we recently did. It started out as just a normal etching and one day someone wanted to see a painted one so we decided to give it a try.

It really turned out great, much better then we expected.

We applied acrylic paint with a brush and after drying slightly rubbed off the excess. The paint only sticks to the areas the laser etched. It still takes some time and patience and you have to get the colors in the correct places but not real hard to do.

It took the laser 3 hours to run the etching and took 4 1/2 hours to do the painting. I am sure the painting time would be less the next time.

I am still amazed to what can be done with these lasers.

Tom Sweeney
01-20-2004, 10:30 PM
George,
That is too cool. :cool: Beautifully done. It sounds like a painting even I could do.

Kevin Gerstenecker
01-20-2004, 10:37 PM
I agree Tom, that is beautiful. That's it..............I'm sellin' the house and buyin' me a Laser :D Really nice George........that is simply amazing! Thanks for sharing that engraving with us............everytime I see this laser work, I am amazed!

Keith Outten
01-21-2004, 12:00 AM
Very, Very Nice George,

That's my facination with laser engravers, there is always something else to try or experiment with. New materials are coming out almost every month and anyone who is innovative can have a great idea and develope a new technique. I could see your mural inlayed into a really nice table top.

Absolutely Fantastic!

James Carpenter
01-22-2004, 9:13 PM
George,
That is very sharp. I do want one of those engravers so bad. Thanks for sharing such a great project.

Aaron Koehl
01-23-2004, 8:24 AM
Wow, someone was really a painter there! Beautiful shading and color.

_Aaron_

George Skinner
01-23-2004, 8:07 PM
Thanks everyone for the great comments.

Aaron,

My brother is the one that did the painting of this mural and did a great job.
Most of the shading is done by the many dots created by the laser.
You still have to mix the colors and come back and do some highlights and a little shading on your own.
We are remodeling a customer's kitchen and will be doing a custom mural on the wall behind the stove. I will post a picture when it is completed.

Thanks All

Aaron Koehl
01-25-2004, 7:13 PM
George,

Suppose you could take a large close-up of one of the
tiles? (To see the paint strokes)

_Aaron_

George Skinner
01-25-2004, 7:25 PM
Aaron,

There really are not any paint strokes as you rub off any excess paint. When you do some shading you come in a put a darker or lighter shade over some areas and rub off the excess, just a little stays behind and creates some shading. There is no build up of paint so it looks like the color is in the tile.

Aaron Koehl
01-25-2004, 8:28 PM
Of course, I didn't mean paint strokes, just wanted to
see the texture of the marble up close. :) I'm really quite
interested and impressed.

_A_

Peter Vasic
02-03-2005, 5:02 PM
Yeah !!!!

How good is that !:D

Regards

Peter

Kevin Huffman
02-03-2005, 5:46 PM
Hey George,

That is awsome.
You could probably open your own chain of "Paint by Engravings" instead of paint by numbers. You could probably make a kill'n.

Great job.

George M. Perzel
02-04-2005, 7:19 AM
Hi George;
Awesome painting! I am very interested in better understanding the process you used, type of tile, laser settings, laser wattage, paint type used, etc.
I would appreciate any info you can share. Again-great job!!
Thanks
George M. Perzel

George Skinner
02-04-2005, 10:35 PM
George,
Thanks for the nice comments.
I will try to give you as much information as I can but a few things I will have to look up and post later.
The laser I am using is a bit different then what most people on this forum are using so any settings may not be of much use.
The laser is a Vytek FX5136 35 watt which gives me a table size of 51" x 36" and allowed me to engrave the entire mural at one time.
I can not remember the settings but it took approx. 3 1/2 hrs. to run and 4 hrs. to paint.
The tile is pure black marble purchased from Color Stone International located in Georgia.
The paints were purchased from a craft store and are acrylic. I believe the brand is Patio Paint and can be used for concrete and exterior uses.
Basically you just take the color you want and apply it to the area with a brush. I let it dry just slightly then carefully remove the excess with a paper towel being carefull not to smear it into adjacent areas.
I have found that and image engraved a little darker then you would normally use for just a black a white image paints a little better.

James Stokes
02-05-2005, 6:26 AM
George, How have your dealings with Vytek been? I have had a Vytek laser for about 5 years now, and I have been extremely UN-impressed with Vyteks customer service.

George Skinner
02-05-2005, 9:28 PM
James,
I have not been impressed either. It seems after you buy the laser they forget about you and you never hear anything from them unless it is something else they are trying to sell.
Also when I bought the unit I was specific in telling them I also wanted it set up for vector cutting as well. I did get the vector slats for the table but no software or any support for vector cutting. I then find out that I have to buy their $2,000 program to do any vector cutting and engraving at the same time. I have used a cadd program and corel for vector cutting with mixed results. If you know of any program that will work with the Vytek I would appreciate the help.

Rodne Gold
02-06-2005, 11:12 PM
That is amazing , extremely creative work , it must look stunning in real life. Art and technology meet.

James Stokes
02-08-2005, 7:45 AM
When I bought my laser I was told I would be able to cut anything with my laser. During the set-up I asked about the cutting process, I was told the samething, That I needed to buy additional software. I hit the roof on that, I had just spent $65,000 and they were telling me that what I had wanted to do from the start was not possible and I would have to spend $2000 more to do that. Nope was not going to happen. We went round and round on that. It eventually came down to a convention they were going to, I told Dirk that I was going to rent the booth next to him, set up my laser and tell all of his potential customers about the problems I had. I had the software the next day.:D The software they sent me was Casmate. It works O.K. but you can not cut and engrave in one step. but once you get it figured out, it is not to bad.
E-mail me off line, I might be able to help you out.

Laura Zaruba
02-09-2005, 12:12 AM
George,

Do you seal your finished pieces with anything? I've been playing around with oils and acrylics (none of which remotely compare to your example I might add!) but things seemed to be going fine...until I tried sealing. Pieces that were fully painted sealed fine. Then I did a photo with just one portion painted and as soon as I started spraying the sealer I realized my mistake - the unpainted engraved areas became speckled from the spray.

Any suggestions you or anyone else might have are greatly appreciated. ;)

Laura DeMeyer
Etched in Time Engraving
"Making Memories Last a Lifetime"
http://www.etchedintimeengraving.com (http://www.etchedintimeengraving.com/)

Ken Frisby
02-09-2005, 12:35 AM
For indoor use why bother sealing? I use acrylic on granite for outdoor use and haven't found a need to seal it. Your outdoor house paint is either acrylic or oil based and it lasts for several years.

Laura Zaruba
02-09-2005, 1:04 AM
Hi Ken.

I wasn't going to seal them until a photographer friend of mine asked if I did. I figured it wasn't a bad idea...provided the sealer doesn't ruin the work, of course.

Laura DeMeyer
Etched in Time Engraving
"Making Memories Last a Lifetime"
http://www.etchedintimeengraving.com (http://www.etchedintimeengraving.com/)

Mark Singer
02-09-2005, 1:11 AM
Just beautiful!!!! Really very special piece!

Ken Frisby
02-09-2005, 1:17 AM
It's not a photo, shouldn't need to be sealed. Some photograpers use a fixative sealer to insure the photo to last longer and not yellow or fade.

George Skinner
02-09-2005, 8:42 PM
I do seal the marble, mainly to protect the unpainted marble from stains. I will check when I go to the shop in the morning. I wipe it on, let it soak in some and then wipe it off. You do have to make sure you get the dust off from the laser operation or it tends to smear the tile. I also use a solvent based sealer as the latex based sealers wanted to smear the tiles alot.

Laura Zaruba
02-09-2005, 10:10 PM
George, do you seal the marble after you laser and before you paint?

George Skinner
02-09-2005, 11:08 PM
I seal after it is painted.

Shari Loveless
02-10-2005, 11:02 AM
Ok George,

We are waiting to find out what you seal this marble with. Will it work with all types of paint on the marble? Don't want to put all that time in painting, and then have it ruined, right. I just picked up some marble tiles, and cannot wait to try this technique.

Shari

George Skinner
02-14-2005, 10:39 PM
The sealer I use is made by "Stone Care International" called StoneGuard. It is a solvent based stone and grout sealer.
I usually wipe it on and let it soak for a few minutes and wipe it off and then do a second coat.
It has not had any effect on the acrylic paints I use but I would suggest you do a test before using it on an actual project.