With this program you can brand your organization without any start-up costs or fees – your revenue is completely based on the participation of your membership.

The idea is very simple and you have total control on how to administer it.  We provide you with associate pricing for different size crystals – this pricing includes all the make-ready charges for the custom designs that will be placed in each crystal.

You advertise to your membership about the designs and customization available (we can even provide you with image samples for your website) along with the pricing of each crystal size being offered.  If you have an order system with PayPal even better, you already know how to create an order page.

To allow even better flexibility and allow for better commissions you can choose to handle each order individually, or batch multiple orders of the same design together for a better commission percentage.

Here are a few examples:

You manage an internet site that deals with clubs, classmates or like minded individuals.  You offer your group organizers an opportunity to provide commemorative or special event crystals for fund raising, membership gifts, or just as gifts.  Your website fields the initial inquiry and we handle all the design needs and present it to the customer through your site.  Upon approval, you collect all moneys and place your order through us for drop shipment anywhere in the country.  We can even include line cards or other printed media if needed.

or

You have a Club or Association for Cats which has 100 members.  You provide us a logo or design for your club and we provide images of your logo in different crystal shapes and prices.  You then offer to your membership the availability to purchase a special member crystal from the sizes you choose.

or

You have a small user group of architects and you want to promote the club membership by providing a club logo and a design of a classic architectural shape like an arch.  We create the design imagery and provide it to you for advertising on your website or newsletter.

or

You announce to your members that the club is offering a limited series of club crystals in two sizes – the larger of the two would be higher priced but of lower quantity (50 pcs) and the smaller one would still be limited in production (200 pcs)

In both examples:

You take the orders, collect the money and place your order with us for the designs, we produce the order and ship them to you for distribution to your members.  You keep the difference between the selling price and the associate pricing – all without any start-up cost.

The size commission you make is all in how you batch your orders to us or rally your membership – for even more commission, we have pricing for single order customization as well.

Each box is provided in a satin lined gift box with room for a special card or announcement that you can print and provide with each crystal.

If you like the idea of providing a unique crystal award or custom art to your membership and generate additional operating income with very little work, contact us and we would be happy to provide you additional details and pricing to get you started.

The majority of our engraving is done with high wattage lasers – we like lasers because they provide a tremendous amount of detail oriented engraving styles with a lower cost to client.

Regardless, understanding the different types available is the purpose of this section.

etching and engraving

A high powered air compressor blasts media onto the surface of the material.  The design is protected through the use of a mask which kind of looks like a negative of the design being done.   The mask protects the material underneath from being etched (actually removed), so that when the mask is taken off only the exposed areas appear etched.

This technique is great for continuous coverage in areas.  Depending how long the design is blasted the material removed can be deeper for added effect.  Very fine details between exposed areas should be avoided.  Tone can be control by the artist much like using an airbrush in painting.  Consistency in multiple pieces is very high.

deep multi-stage engraving

This technique which is a variation of etching that allows for deeper contours to be added to the work by systematically revealing different regions of the mask.  Regions exposed earlier benefit from the deeper cuts from the next pass.  The overall effect creates a dimensional relief in the material which is stunning in glass.

Setup for these can be some of the most arduous of all etching due to the multiple masks required and registration of the design.  They have the same coverage quality with added depth but still concern must be made when dealing with fine details between exposed areas.  Consistency in multiple pieces varies but can be controlled when done properly.

surface laser engraving

High powered lasers concentrate a beam of energy onto the material creating a tiny fracture on the surface.  The laser can control intensity and pulse of the beam allowing for very accurate designs with a high consistency for multiple pieces.  Detail is only limited to the size of the spot on the beam (typically 0.005 inches) and the stability of the material itself.

This technique works with many materials including glass and crystal although the defining edges on these can appear slightly rough when not properly set up.

sub surface laser engraving

Without getting into a technical dissertation (you can read some of it here) - sub surface laser engraving is truly a marvel to see when executed correctly and less than impressive when not. The reason we say this because when treated like a microwave (throwing in a model or scene to laser) the design gets lost with overlapping surfaces and visual clutter.

In a more positive note,  when the design is executed properly it has the ability to play with the viewer by leveraging its dimensional properties while retaining structure of design.  This is one of the areas we specialize having produced hundreds of original designs in this medium.

This technique only works with optical crystal and glass that has the composition to support laser engraving.  If you are considering having us design a piece for you, you should read some of the additional sections we have on our website (like here).

diamond wheel

The truly traditional art of wheel engraving is very beautiful on glass and crystal.  Most of you are more familiar with crystal loving cup or goblets which use with this age-old art form.

While we don’t do that traditional style of work (but know those that do should you desire one), we have used it for more geometric design in crystal as a background treatment.  The visual effect allows for crisper depths than deep engraving but is mostly limited to linear designs which is why we stay in that comfort area.  The refraction quality of these cuts can be further enhanced when polished as well.

In the real world, printing is done on white paper, ink is black, shadows are dark, highlight is light and the world is round.  In our world, our paper is clear, the ink is white, shadows don’t exist, white is viewed as substance (the world is still round just upside down and backwards).

here is an example swatch of how tone is rendered by a laser – remember the BLACK is clear
continuous tone on top/segmented in middle/laser dithering below

Since we don’t have shadows to define elements, we do have contrast between our “colors” – in the example above we can clearly discern the difference between segments on the bottom row – more so the farther apart they are.  This is a good example of how textures in an image or model can best be used to enhance the result using our “inks”.

Another important thing to know is the objects in the design will rarely ever look like a solid white object because they cast no shadow on themselves.  With white being the primary “color” and no ability for shadows to enforce contours, the designer should have a working knowledge of negative space, spatial juxtaposition and a basic understanding of good design.

3d modeling

A scene, logo, or product is designed completely in 3D cad system – ideally, different components may have differing shades of white.  This approach works well with simple shapes that are easily identifiable for the viewer.  Complex shapes create numerous overlapping surfaces which confuse the viewer with dense white regions and hide the actual shape. <show me> Best used sparingly by a designer that understands “less is more” for a better result – cad file drops from the client rarely provide satisfactory results out of the box.

2d bitmap

One of the most common methods of laser engraving for both sub-surface and surface engravers.  Images are converted into a “halftone” which is a pattern of dots spaced to evoke a sense of tone across the varying intensity of the image.  The brighter (whiter) the area, the closer the dots are placed to one another.   Less dense areas appear less bright creating tonal changes in the image.  Look at newspaper print of an image – same idea – different medium.  This approach works well with photographs that have good contrast in them as well as single or two color logos or text.  There is some size limitations though since images, symbols and text need enough dots to be recognizable.

2.5d bitmap

This is an interesting approach which combines the advantages of 2D bitmaps and some of the dimensionality of 3D modeling.  This techniques builds as many as seven to eight layers of points over one another to create a whiter “white” than is available with the basic 2D approach.  This approach works really well with logos and a certain amount of text – photographs of heads are commonly done but we feel they look “spiky” when viewed from subtle angles and suddenly loose the visual effect desired.

what do we use

Actually, we use all of the above techniques just a bit differently.  Sometimes we mix techniques with the laser and with traditional engraving – other times, one or two is all that’s needed.  Some of these variations include proprietary halftone techniques, dimensional texturing or even digitally redrawing on a tablet.

Regardless, we always show you the technique and how it can be best presented for your needs before it is ever engraved.

Sub-Surface Laser Engraving or SSLE as it is being termed nowadays, is a technique “discovered” in Russia.  Originally the creation of these “dots” was a problem known as “Laser Induced Damage” and was exhaustingly studied.  At the time, the idea was to avoid these problems by selecting specific material compositions and laser optics to improve laboratory use.

In the process, a list of material compositions was created that provided good transparency with minimal heat absorption.  There was also another list which didn’t and it was somewhere in there, that laser technicians found it “cool” to write their name in these materials.

Needless to say, someone decided there might be some commercial applications for this and began writing dissertations about the controlled placement of these dots inside of the crystal.

Over the years, the science of this process has become more of an art form that balances the technical aspects of high-powered lasers and delicate balance of image design within them.

So how is it done – the somewhat technical explanation is:

“The creation of our 3D laser crystals utilize high-energy laser beams to produce a phenomena known as “Multi-photon Absorption” within optically perfect crystal. This phenomena which use the electromagnetic wave of the laser beam known as coherent light creates an electric field greater than 10 million volts per centimeter.

When the laser beam is focused within the interior of the subject crystal the energy creates unattached electrons also known as “free” electrons. These “free” electrons, accelerated by the electric field created by the laser beam causes the high energy electrons to collide with atoms and ions in the focus area.

As the process continues it causes a chain reaction and produces about 1 million trillion free electrons per cubic centimeter in about 1 trillionth of a second. The laser then emits a short pulse beam of a few billionths per second and produces a tiny micro crack. The laser head then align and position tens of thousands of additional micro cracks to create 2 or 3 dimensional images.  Each of these micro cracks is unstable if positioned in too close a proximity to one another – in effect the entire cluster of these micro cracks are held together through the internal stress of the crystal itself.

Although, the laser generates power densities of 10 billion watts per square centimeter, the surface of the crystal is not damaged due to the highly transparent nature of optically perfect crystal. The resulting images appear to float within the crystal. “

actually, we prefer the simpler explanation:

“A big sophisticated machine called a high powered laser generates an ittsy-bitsy spot of heat inside the crystal. This heat creates a teeny-weeny dot.

The machine moves across the crystal a little at a time and creates another teeny-weeny dot. Each of these teeny-weeny dots is far enough apart to not touch the other teeny-weeny dots (which wouldn’t be a good thing). The machine does this again and again to create a really really (really) lot of teeny-weeny dots.

When the machine is done, we see all the teeny-weeny dots as a complete shape floating in the crystal. We see these teeny-weeny dots as an object because of a process that takes place in our heads known as “Perception” and “Pattern Recognition”.  It is these cognitive skills which allow us the ability to visualize objects in our mind, based on a interpretation of visual patterns, their structure and symmetry but, that’s an entirely different story…”

No matter how you come to understanding of how they are produced, we feel that the results speak louder than words.