How would you decorate a convex mirror?

[VizualVoice]

Think the convex security mirror like you'd see in the corner of a bodega. Client wants to put a fairly detailed mandal design onto the face of it, black only, but with the shiny mirror-surface showing through. Or and it's about 36" diameter, but only about 3-4" deep (don't have it in front of me so that last is an estimate)

My initial thought would be if there was an optically clear cast wrap material with air-egress and reposition adhesive, but that probably doesn't exist. Then I was thinking cut vinyl but that would absolutely suck to weed, plus i'm wondering if I'll have to do some relief cuts around the edge where it's going to distort, and I'm not sure how else to account for that distortion. I'd also mentally toyed with the idea of making a paint mask and etching then spraying it.

Pic for example, not the actual one.

Open to any and all suggestions and smart-assed remarks. (Probably more of the latter inbound.... )

 

[MikePro]

paintmask vinyl for stencil and just spray it with rattlecan.

if the bits and pieces are a pita to weed, then just save the weeding until you've applied the whole sheet. ...i also usually filet all corners to like a .01" so they peel clean rather than tear/lift at corners.

 

[Boudica]

Clear glass apeel is removable/repositionable, and optically clear when wet applied. But I don't know how it would work on a curved surface. It's fairly rigid.

 

[VizualVoice]

Clear glass apeel is removable/repositionable, and optically clear when wet applied. But I don't know how it would work on a curved surface. It's fairly rigid.

Super nice folks! Just got off the phone with Bill. It's definitely too rigid and won't work but good thought.

 

[VizualVoice]

paintmask vinyl for stencil and just spray it with rattlecan.

if the bits and pieces are a pita to weed, then just save the weeding until you've applied the whole sheet. ...i also usually filet all corners to like a .01" so they peel clean rather than tear/lift at corners.

Definitely in the running if I can't find something printable to do this with. Just that's a LOT of weeding. Like a LOT a LOT. The full image of this but also with some block letter text in the middle of it. Will definitely suck to do if that's the way we have to go.

Good tip about not peeling until applied, is there an application tape that's more conformable than others?

 

[MikePro]

convex conformable? i doubt it, besides still relying on the material to also do with another material "holding it back".
....but I'd still rock it as a challenge. you can make those bits conform no problem, just start applying in the middle and tear-away mask & smoosh paintmask as you go. could be fun.
i'd actually take that whole pattern and offset all the shapes ~.063"-.125" & weed those lines out prior to mask, to allow a little "empty space" for the mask to conform as much as it will let you.
water may help with this "stretch" during application since most transfer masks are paper-based. ...like wetting the mask, not wet-applying. paint mask is great with its ability to peel&reposition/replace prior to committing to paint if you're gentle.
(i'd still score the mask and tear in circular lines in center of those radial paths, and the rest of the paintmask should slightly conform with a lil'tug.)

any wrinkles on the back-end, just take a sharp Xacto and slice it away & patch problem areas. finish with a scrape/chemwipe of any problem corners where paint makes it under the mask.

....otherwise, the process you'd want for mass-imprinting such things, is a pad printer at that scale ....and you can actually pump out like 200/hr easily at like $.30psf plus child labor costs overseas.

 

[Boudica]

Oooh oooh... "Design" it so that you could do something rigid, but cut it like a pizza. but you need some serious maths in the design to accomodate the curve in the circumference. Definite challenge, but it could probably be done?

 

[MikePro]

aye a half-sphere would be the extent of what I could "wrap" my head around in a pinch. i feel like my above advice is still for advanced users, as any "wrap" over such a contour is certain to lend itself to the pinstripe wiggle.

 

[Boudica]

aye a half-sphere would be the extent of what I could "wrap" my head around in a pinch. i feel like my above advice is still for advanced users, as any "wrap" over such a contour is certain to lend itself to the pinstripe wiggle.

So down to some conformable, printed wrap vinyl so it's optically clear (unicorn), contour cut vinyl (pita weeding by a human.. No way in hell that's worth it) to some spray paint option that I sort of skimmed by.

 

[VizualVoice]

....otherwise, the process you'd want for mass-imprinting such things, is a pad printer at that scale ....and you can actually pump out like 200/hr easily at like $.30psf plus child labor costs overseas.

Of course, it's a 1-off but I like where your brain is going!

 

[VizualVoice]

Oooh oooh... "Design" it so that you could do something rigid, but cut it like a pizza. but you need some serious maths in the design to accomodate the curve in the circumference. Definite challenge, but it could probably be done?

Oh dang, I'm having flashbacks to when I had to figure out how to distort a round gobo (metal pattern for projecting through a theatrical light) to make it fall round on the floor when we couldn't shoot it straight down. That was the one and only time I ever used calculus in the real world. I hope I don't have to repeat that

 

[Boudica]

Of course, it's a 1-off but I like where your brain is going!

That's done with one of those picking machines. I've seen videos... A robotic machine that intricately weeds vinyl at super human speeds. But it requires programing the "weeding" software to pick the right places. It's mind blowing, but no doubt very expensive.

 

[Ryze Signs]

You could try projecting the image into the mirror and hand painting it with one shot. Personally I would turn this job down unless the project was over $5k.

 

[Mike Paul]

Hydro dip or hand paint.

 

[JBurton]

Print on something premo, like arlon slx, plot, don't weed, mask with rtape conform series or the like, prestrech the center, apply, weed. A 36" circle with a 4" rise is only 38" across the face, not a ton of distortion there. You could probably get away with 3m 7125, it's just not going to stretch quite as nicely.
edit: alternatively, print on SLX, plot, weed, laminate with a great cast laminate (I forget arlon's number, 3200 or 3220), apply using the laminate as your premask. Again, prestretch is key or your outer perimeter will overlap itself/fold over somewhere.

 

[DL Signs]

Could you print the black (double strike to make it opaque) on clear?
Orafol has a gloss, cast, conformable transparent wrap film (3951 ultra slide). I would think that wrapping from center outwards, any distortion should stay uniform and "look right".
Just a thought anyway. Maybe see if one of your vendors can send a sample to play with.

 

[VizualVoice]

Hydro dip or hand paint.

Nope. And I say this as someone who's other business IS hydrographics. Getting the custom film to work is challenging enough, trying to adhere it to glass in just the precise spot with minimal distortion. The stuff of absolute nightmares. Then, how do you get the primer and base paint on there while leaving the "clear" bits mirrored? Not gonna happen.

 

[VizualVoice]

You could try projecting the image into the mirror and hand painting it with one shot. Personally I would turn this job down unless the project was over $5k.

so.....what happens when you shine a projector at a mirror?

 

[VizualVoice]

Print on something premo, like arlon slx, plot, don't weed, mask with rtape conform series or the like, prestrech the center, apply, weed. A 36" circle with a 4" rise is only 38" across the face, not a ton of distortion there. You could probably get away with 3m 7125, it's just not going to stretch quite as nicely.
edit: alternatively, print on SLX, plot, weed, laminate with a great cast laminate (I forget arlon's number, 3200 or 3220), apply using the laminate as your premask. Again, prestretch is key or your outer perimeter will overlap itself/fold over somewhere.

ooh, that's an interesting thought, using an optically clear lam as a pre-mask. I still want to print not cut and weed though ideally.

 

[VizualVoice]

Could you print the black (double strike to make it opaque) on clear?
Orafol has a gloss, cast, conformable transparent wrap film (3951 ultra slide). I would think that wrapping from center outwards, any distortion should stay uniform and "look right".
Just a thought anyway. Maybe see if one of your vendors can send a sample to play with.

THAT is the kind of info I'm looking for. Gonna research the transparent wrap film and see if it is clear enough to not fubar the mirror look. TYVM!

You don't have any of that sitting around, do you?