Signature Items

[+KKTH3]

Well, we have decided on exactly what we want to do for a signature item, however I have had trouble finding the materials needed to create them. Our idea is to use a white 1" diameter marble and paint a design on the outside. So the first question is where we can find such marbles - the second on if anyone had painted on marbles before if then know what kind of paint sticks on them best - and third I had seen not too long ago how someone made glass marbles as a hobby and wondering how i could contact them to see if they can make a variation on our original idea and make a contracted batch of signature items for us. Anyway, I am far from crafty myself, but I would like some handmade sig item - even if I am not the one to make it.

[Black Mage]

Try this place:

 

http://www.glassmarblespebbles.com/glass-marbles.html

 

or here

Edited August 6, 2005 by Black Mage

[+Moose Mob]

It may have been Jim Bob Ferly that makes some really cool glass stuff, including marbles. You can try to e-mail him and see.

[+reveritt]

It's gonna be pretty hard to get any kind of paint to stick to glass. You might want to try something that has a slightly rougher surface. If I were you, I would look into ceramic polishing media. These are small ceramic objects that are sold in a variety of shapes, and used for polishing and deburring all sorts of manufactured items in vibratory polishers. They come in various shapes and surface finsihes, including spheres, and will be sold by weight.

 

Other options might include unpainted/unglazed ceramic beads, or even your own homemade marbles made from polymer clay.

[+KKTH3]

It's gonna be pretty hard to get any kind of paint to stick to glass. You might want to try something that has a slightly rougher surface. If I were you, I would look into ceramic polishing media. These are small ceramic objects that are sold in a variety of shapes, and used for polishing and deburring all sorts of manufactured items in vibratory polishers. They come in various shapes and surface finsihes, including spheres, and will be sold by weight.

 

Other options might include unpainted/unglazed ceramic beads, or even your own homemade marbles made from polymer clay.

Oh, that gives me an idea! We don't have much in this town but we do have a paint your own pottery shop. I bet we can make some sig items there.

[+Ladybug Kids]

We use a diamond tipped engraving tool to etch our team name and number into the base of our glass ladybug sig. items. The etching is then highlighted by applying silver "rub and buff."

[+Birdsong-n-Bud]

For awhile, we used very smooth worry stones (smooth as a marble) with a stenciled bird on it for our sig item. We tried applying every possible type of protective medium on top of the stone to protect the paint, but the picture would still rub off if someone placed it in a sweaty pocket. I would soak one overnight to see if it would withstand a wet cache box. Nope.

 

So then I considered etching on it, but found that the price of doing so would be astronomical. Soooooo....we switched to hand-painted wooden nickels, lol.

 

I hope you're able to find a better solution than we did, and would love to see a picture of the end result once yours is complete. It sounds like a marvelous idea for a signature item.

 

About our sig item switch:

About 4 samples of our coins can be viewed at Nurse Dave's site (3rd adn 4th row). Our coins are constantly being updated, and these are the "batch before last." And the front side of our card is here.