Engraving is going well. Yesterday I messed around with some single wall steel pint glasses I got from Greens Steel. Greens Steel is a global company (as I understand it) with US headquarters in Texas and environmentally focused. Products made in China, but supposedly they make sure the factory isn't a polluting sweatshop. The cups came wrapped in tissue paper, nested, in a cardboard box. No plastic, which is pretty surprising and great (I've unboxed a lot of promo product and it's always plastic bags within plastic bags). One with a black coating, another in a faux titanium rainbow. Cups seem thick and nice.

I have been trying out all my burr options. I still have the cheap diamond burrs, and I have a set of different polishing/grinding burrs (pink, green, wool, leather, some kind of green/brown speckle - so far the green is best) in cylinder and bullet shapes. I added a set of these fiberglass wooly-looking buffing/polishing burrs in different grits. They're okay, mostly I need to figure out a stencil to use them with because they are not precise. They're perfect for clouds, really. I was hoping to get a streaky brushed look from the coarsest grit but they are fairly subtle. But they do a nice soft uniform all over texture. I figured out that tungsten carbide burrs are recommended for harder metals like stainless steel. I think my rotary tool burr set came with one and I have used it - the cuts are more polished on the inside, whereas if you work with the diamond burs it has a microstreaked appearance in the etch mark, like it was cut by sandpaper (which it is, basically). So I found a set of carbide with fine detail tips and ordered them.

Ball tip shapes, bullet shapes and that domed cylinder are still best overall. I noticed there is an arrow on the tool that points away when I hold it in my dominant right hand. This is the direction of the spin. I figured out if you move with the direction of the spin, and sort of brush lines away from you, they come out smoother with less chance of jittering. Unfortunately this is the opposite of tattooing, where mostly I pull lines toward me, just because I can see the stencil better and have more coordinating control over the skin.

So I just lifted some art off the internet like a weasel because I was too impatient to draw anything. I found a simple polygonal running wolf/german shepherd for the black cup, and a nice flowy japanese style lotus for the rainbow cup.

The black cup took some extra work, because the paint layer is pretty thick and tough to get through. Takes some pressure. Plus, like a dummy, I picked a design with straight lines. I thought it would be okay because they are short, but that's still extra precision esp at the intersections and jitters are more obvious. So the black cup took longer even though the design was smaller and simpler, because there was more cleanup work necessary to smooth the lines and make sure the thickness was uniform. The rainbow color on the other cup is a thin transparent stain, so it doesn't take extra work. I tried some shaded areas on the inside of the petals and I was able to get a blackwork dot effect, but it doesn't look as clean due to the lack of contrast between the color/uncolored areas. So I may go back and do a solid shade on the inside petals to look less muddled. They would be beautiful cups for mermaids or insects. We got a cicada brood this year, oh boy. Gonna make some cicada cups, you betcha.

The rotary tool is considerably heavier than a tattoo machine so my hand was getting pretty tired by the end of the rainbow cup, and when your hand is tired it's harder to get clean lines.

So the black coated cup works best for clean simple graphic designs. The rainbow cup has a more subtle almost shadowy look, because the bright color catches the eye first. Also of note, it's important to have some kind of cushion for the edge of the cup that rests on the table as one works. The black cup got some wear marks from rattling against the unprotected surface. I have ordered a silicon boot thing that is meant to protect the bottoms of tumblers so I can eliminate that in the future.

I got two of the larger 20oz cups in plain steel. After being a logo snobby-snob at my in-laws, I went to their website and lifted their logos, polished some of the problems in photoshop (gave them the embroidery processing treatment, where certain details are simplified and adjusted for clarity) and slapped them on the cups. I haven't engraved them yet cause my wrist got tired. If they don't like my versions of their logos they can sit and spin, the cups are free. Best case they'll be like, oh yeah, when you see it on product this looks way better, let me have that file so I can fix my website. YES PLEASE FIX YOUR WEBSITE.

I'm getting pretty good at these laserprint transfers. I got a tube of the cheapest white watercolor (artist loft brand, you know, the brand that exists to rot in shitty "artists sets" that non-artists buy to give as gifts - if you have an artist friend, just give them a gift card to a good supply store NOT MICHAELS, MICHAELS ISN'T AN ART STORE IT'S A GREEDY PARASITE). It has a problem with leaving brush streak marks that my good watercolor didn't have. The brush marks create ridges that 1) interfere with a good transfer and 2) adds chances of a skittery line. So I may have to go back to artist grade watercolor after this.

I have found like, three or four brands of insulated stainless steel pint glasses I want to compare. We've had a pair of Klean Kanteen for years that are great, and I would totally buy them for the base product. I just want to check other options and see how they shake out, and pick the best (plus Klean Kanteen is a big company and won't be interested in giving my piddly orders a wholesale discount). The single layer glasses from Greens Steel are very nice and the wholesale price is attractive. I could see using the single layer pints as a simpler art/lower price point ($30-40ish) and have the insulated pints as the fancier, upscale option ($50+). For an average person looking for a nice gift for a friend, $40 is doable if the item is especially interesting, practical and eyecatching.

Anyway, workin' on it.