Friday, August 5, 2011

ITS on Tile part 2


Yesterday's blog introduced using ITS on tile. Above are image from my stepson Chris' and Hailee's wedding. I decide to do these in color because the orange and turquoise color scheme really pops. You can see the imperfections in the images, but that's part of their charm.






Image transfer, especially on tile, is not an exact science. It’s best to make a few extra copies of your images in case they don’t turn out the first time. Your images will not be perfect, but will have variation because of the natural contours of the tile, the saturation of the photo and other variables. That’s the beauty of this kind of image transfer, though. Each tile is unique and a has a special character. If you do need to re-do a tile, just soak it in water (before you put on the sealer) and then use coarse sandpaper to sand off the image.







Depending on your image, you may want to tear the edges so it doesn't have a hard edge. Above is the difference between a straight edge and a torn edge. If your photos are black and white, the light parts of the photo will naturally disappear, creating a soft edge even when the image is cut straight, such as in the image below.






Bubbling
The tile below has a lot of white spots because the paper bubbled. Sometimes, like in this tile, they turn out looking great. In general, though, you want to avoid bubbling because if you get a white spot on someone's face, or an important part of the picture, it's a do-over.

White Film
The white film on the lower part of the image means that all the paper has not been removed yet. It needs to be polished some more with the blue 3M polishing sheet under running water.




Picture Placement
Since tile has natural dips and bumps, sometimes it will interfere with the picture. The bride's face on this tile gets lost in the natural contours. It would be best to start over and turn the picture a quarter turn.


Remember that your own images might require some experimentation. Luckily, if you don't like the first result, it's easy to sand it off and start over. I've had so much fun with this new technique, I've got more coasters than I know what to do with!

1 comment:

  1. Great idea for tiles. I have some old tiles in my store room, they are also in white colour. I will use those tile to implement this ideas and ill give gift on this Xmas.
    Sigma Tile Cutters

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