I feel like I'm cheating by using the Glowforge

I don’t know why but I feel like I’m cheating when I use the Glowforge to make my jewelry as opposed to hand stamping metal.

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Love these! Is this rub-n-buff? What are you using as a base?

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I hope you can get past your guilt. :wink:These are lovely.

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thank you

I don’t know what rubb and buff is so I guess not lol. On the metal I use anywhere from sharpie, alcohol ink, or Jax.

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Beautiful results! :grinning:

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Oh, it’s actual metal. Hah. I thought you engraved wood or the like, and just finished it to look like metal. Now I’m doubly impressed!

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Curious what kind of metal you’re getting that depth of engrave with?

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Agreed, that’s a pretty impressive engrave for metal.

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it is aluminum and the black and white picture are wood on the Glowforge

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thank you

Did I understand this correctly that you are engraving the aluminum? Can you share more of your process? I assume, and without talking specific setting, you are hitting it with very slow, high powered pew pew?

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no I hand stamp the aluminum with metal stamps. That is the bottom picture. (just a quick example). The top photo is wood and of course made on the Glowforge. Sorry to disappoint. I have had some success with the spray as far as marking aluminum. Just on occasion though. For some reason it doesn’t quite take all the time. I’m sure it is user error. (me)

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You shouldn’t feel guilty. There are loads of different types of art and design and creation. I don’t feel guilty that I can ctrl+z a mistake where a traditional artist has to carefully erase. You’re creating in your own way and it’s beautiful c:

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Don’t feel guilty. They are two different things. You will find that some prefer one over the other. My wife is a jeweler and debates over the same idea. Generally the GF items are cheaper in price for the customer because you can mass produce them. The metal jewelry is more pricey for the opposite reason. I think it’s good to have variety of products and price range.

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Do you have much luck with the aluminum Jax? I’ve tried and tried and can’t get it to come out right. The pewter black works like a dream on copper.

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no I think of aluminum as a clean metal because every thing wipes off so easy. I have an experiment going to see if it will patina at all. It seems like it will but what has started might wipe off easily I don’t know yet. I will check soon. I usually only use Jax on copper and it would be very purposeful because I can’t stand the smell.

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crkjelstrom thank you

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Does the sharpie work well?

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Those are very deeply engraved for real metal :astonished: What metal are you using?