Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Technical Difficulties

Received an email from Glass With a Twist this morning. They would have a difficult time working around most of the images so right now I'm going though the process of converting all the images into true black and white. It requires some time to touch up the images manually as well so I will hold another voting off the new, true black and white images sometime. I don't know how long this will take but considering Anonymous of Jacksonville was an awesome enough dude to link me from his blog I've been receiving a few more requests to join in on the project.

The images will look different because they will be true black and white but so far I see little problems. The hardest part is touching them up to get rid of derpy angles. We're almost ready to start choosing the final image. I predict in about a week I will email everybody to revote on the four images.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Top 4




Voting has ended and files 01 and 07 were the crowd favorites with twelve votes a piece. In third place is 02 with six votes. These three I will be sending in but there is another issue. Somebody emailed me a late submission early into the voting process. Instead of emailing everybody who already had voted, I'm going to just include it in the final vote. The text will be removed.

Now I need to send them to the company and see which they can use. Hopefully all four designs work out. Either way, expect an email as soon as they get back to me for another round of voting. 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Voting Time

Still waiting for about half the anons to vote. Throwing this up in case you are one of them so check your mail for a response. Either way I will count all the votes by Friday of if feeling patient, wait as late as Sunday.

I will post the results by Sunday night my time either way and immediately contact the glass etchers to see what they can do. I am really hoping the top three can be done but at worst I am very sure a few can be. So far there are three main contenders but that can still change. Look forward to voting updates by Sunday pacific time at latest.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Beta Phase

Good news everybody. Visited a local glass etching business today. Their name is Glass With a Twist. They're an entirely online store so they only had the workshop which is beneficial for this. I got to see their development process and staff along with some of their previous orders. My largest concern on how detailed the custom image can be was pretty much laid to rest with this picture I took of one of their more intricate designs. It can be a bit hard to make out but is a rather detailed picture of a fox's face. Costs are drastically cut too since this is a local business where I can pick up the glasses (remove 50 dollars in shipping right there) and they have no fee for a new design.

The staff member I spoke to was professional and answered any questions I had. What's more, their prices are very good. So good that I am a bit skeptical of the quality of the glasses and their work but they were busy making many orders and have a full return policy should any of their products break on part of faulty glassware. On top of that, their retailer for the glassware they receive is a well known company. More information on that later.

Overall the company is a small one but appears to be a trustworthy one. They only have one style of pint glass available though which is the 16oz version. See link for an image example. http://www.dollartree.com/16-oz-Pub-Glasses/p294372/index.pro

Regardless, 16oz is a rather standard size and more than enough to hold a beer or whatever your drink of choice is. There is also the available option for a beer mug though. See link. http://www.glasswithatwist.com/Bulk-Beer-Glasses-Prodlist.html

It is now that I would like opinions. The 16oz pint glass or the 25oz mug. Which would you prefer? Personally I am leaning towards the 16oz pint glass. I would like a 20oz or 24oz version of the pint glass but that is not an option with this company and can't be helped. Either way I'm not spilling any tears over having to deal with a 16oz glass.

On one final note, I checked out their supplier, Libbey Glass as well. They have products available on amazon and the few reviews that they have are generally high praise. They are also a major glassware manufacturer and as such, must have enough quality glassware that they stay a major company. So far I am getting only good feelings about this company even with the skeptically low prices from Glass With a Twist. I have no explanation for their great prices besides attempting to supply their customers at the lowest prices possible while still making a profit. Given their reputation and standing at the moment it would be believable.

I will assemble a few more images before sending out a vote on them. This should take a few days so be prepared for an email sometime. Any questions or concerns you have address here or via email. Now is the time to voice them.


Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Waiting Game

With about as much research done as I can at the moment, now comes the long boring part of finding out details from companies. My goal at this moment is to
- Check which companies are the most reputable
-  Find out just how detailed the logo can be (hopefully pretty detailed for more variety)
- Choose some official artwork for the voting list

Over the weekend I haven't gotten any new emails from the various companies I have questioned so hopefully they will followup during normal work days. It is at this point expect less consistent posting but I will try to make at least a post every few days just to show that I am still working on it. Just don't expect much content in some of them. Make sure you check back at least weekly though as any slightly important questions I ask I will wait at least four days to gather responses before making a choice.

Again, big issues I will email everybody about as well as post on this blog. I am hoping that the local company I am interested in will make a sample glass for me to take home so I can send some pictures out and stress test it myself. Before getting a glass though I will want to have an official logo chosen.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Sandblasting versus Laser Engraving

I spent a few hours researching various ways that glass can be engraved. To keep it simple, satin etching (also known as sandblasting) seems to be superior to laser engraving for drinking glasses.

The rest from here on is SCIENCE if you're interested in it. If anybody knows this better than I do then let me know. My current knowledge on the subject relates to a dozen websites.

From what I understand, laser engraving is effective on purer glass. That is to say, glass with little other than that in the composition. Pure glass is considered a natural substance. With no impurities in the glass, a laser cuts just fine. But when you want a tougher material, the glass may be combined with a little bit of another substance thus creating an impure glass which is more suitable as a drinking glass. Downside is a laser engraving does something weird to the integrity of the glass compared to satin etching. In either case, they both produce very similar visuals but one is considered superior. In this case, drinking glasses usually receive satin etching.From this we can conclude four important points.
- Pure glass is more brittle than impure glass
- Impure glass makes a better drinking cup
- Laser carving gets jacked up for some SCIENCE reason on impure glass
- Satin etching (sandblasting) is, from what I reviewed, superior for drinking glass

SO for the wrap up part now.
tl;dr
Satin etching is superior to laser engraving. If anybody happens to work with these kinds of things then I'd appreciate your input.

On a final note, I have a promising lead and may be able to see irl examples one day. If any new developments occur I will post them here. This is one step closer.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Alpha Stage

 Right now this is the officially unofficial concept art for the cups. It is by no means the only one being considered at the moment and simply stands as a general idea.

As of now there are 8 potential images for voting on and 14 people interested in the glasses. Current progress is about the same but I am emailing a few places of interest and waiting on responses. As I plan on bulk ordering, the more that I can order the cheaper each glass will be by a dollar or two. If everything goes according to plan, the glasses will range from 8-13 dollars a piece (depending on the manufacture) plus the cost of shipping and packaging materials. Overall I can imagine a maximum cost of 20 dollars and a minimum cost of 15 dollars.

The cups will be made of glass and if at all possible, will be laser engraved. This ensures that the image will not fade. I aim for a 16oz to 24oz glass that is completely clear save for the the image itself and can be machine washed. I have not decided if the actual cups will have handles or not. At the moment leaning towards no handles. Opinions on this would be appreciated.

The overall progress relies heavily on amount of time available for me to research and the speed at which I can get estimates back. My final goal is to choose the best deal possible but not at the sacrifice of quality to the cups.


The Beginnings

Hello and welcome the the first post in a hopefully successful project to create custom drinking glasses. The idea was first presented to /a/ last night and with the flood of emails off two threads it seems much simpler to communicate though a blog. I will hold onto email addresses for more in depth issues but for small developments check here.


First off I have investigated a handful of websites claiming to be able to add custom engravings and it looks promising. If anybody has an image they would like to possibly see on the glasses then email that image. So far I have a collection of five images that I will leave up to all of you to vote on.

Here is to a successful project and on a side note, here is to Anonymous of Jacksonville being unbanned.