In the last article, I talked about the difference between imitation hard enamel and soft enamel. I want to show you how you can use a combination of a 3D die and imitation hard enamel to create something you normally can’t get in enamels: a gradient fill.
The reason why the gradient fill doesn’t work is because you’re working with enamel. Unlike paint, it can’t easily be shaded; you mix one color, and that’s the color that fills an area, and then the coin is baked to set the enamel. So, essentially, you have to translate any gradients in your artwork into flat colors (or you have to use a photo insert or screen printing).
The thing about translucent enamel, though, is that it lets the background of your coin show through and, because it’s filled flush with the top and stoned down, doesn’t slump or sag into the detail. So you can do beautiful things by making very shallow detail on the background (or detail consisting of deeper lines) and then covering it up with translucent enamel.
But this also opens up the opportunity to create what is, essentially, a
gradient fill: by asking the mint to use the 3D process to carve the level of the coin that will (eventually) be under IHE with gradually-changing levels of deepness, you can “shade” the enamel. Those areas that are engraved more shallowly under the enamel will appear as a lighter tone of the enamel color, and those ares that are engraved more deeply will appear darker & more richly-colored.
Here’s an actual ex
ample from real life: the “Osiris” version of the Lotus Compass geocoin. The middle “button” looks shaded/rounded, but the surface of it is actually flat. It’s sculpted in 3D such that the rounded part of the “button” is recessed, so when the enamel was filled overtop of it, the enamel appears shaded. Notice the petals of the lotus blossoms, also, and the dark green wavy lines in the background: those are all examples of recessed & semi-recessed 2D levels under translucent enamel.
So, in short, don’t think that the 3D process means that you automatically will have stuff sticking up out of the top of the coin. You can do some really cool stuff by engraving below the coin’s top level, especially when translucent IHE is involved.
-- JG
Friday, July 23, 2010
Photo inserts are (usually) high-quality printouts of your image on an aluminum sticker. This is inserted into your coin and then epoxy is applied to seal it in.
Screen printing is applied either on top of IHE or on top of epoxy. It’s like a t-shirt printing, done directly on top of the coin, and then more epoxy is applied to make sure it’s sealed in.
The quintessential example of many semi-raised levels of detailed covered by enamel has to be the Tengwar NAWWAL (Not All Who Wander Are Lost) Geocoin by Scavok.
