Back from Absence!

It's been a while since we last posted, but we've been making great headway with brand new designs. This post will be specifically related to our new Deck Box designs.

Depending on the design, each new box design can take anywhere from 4 to 12 hours of continuous work to completely finish and have ready to print. At the moment we're currently preparing these new designs to be photographed and listed on our store, but I can share with you all a glance at some preview images before they're turned into images that can be used for engraving.

Ornamental

The first design, and the first that I began designing of all four, is an ornamental design. It's designed to be generic enough to interest anyone looking for a deck box that doesn't cover any certain niche theme (As our Cthulhu boxes do, or even our Steampunk box to some degree), so it's suitable for any number of TCG or Board Game cards.

We also designed it to still be compatible with cards that may be labeled with a certain "color profile" as MTG, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh card decks have, being made of one or multiple different colors or types. To do this, we have 5 different variations that a customer may select from, where at the center of the box a hole is cut from is cut with 1-5 divisions that may each be colored with a designated color. The result of this will be better outlined in a later post about this box specifically that we'll be posting in the next few days.

Our old MTG Mana boxes used to offer this functionality with single or dual colors, but since we're no longer offering that box design in particular, we created a new design that better implemented multiple color options.

Here's a sneak peak at the new Ornamental design:

The above image shows the Front of the box (design on the left) and a side of the box (design on the right). Both images are mirrored on their opposite sides in the final product.

As you can see, the red lines on the bottom of the image are where the wood is cut out from the outside wall of the box, leaving just the surface of the inside panel exposed, where it's then painted with the desired colors.

Sci-Fi/Hi-Tech or Ars Technica

Our second design sings another tune, more themed than the previous design that fills the space of a Science Fiction or Faux-Hi-Tech vibe for a deck box. It's easy to see this deck holding cards from a game like Netrunner, whose theme revolves around a similar art aesthetic. 

The above image shows off the front and back image on the box (design on the left) as well as the lid of the box that customers at our Etsy store can get customized with their choice of text (design on the right)

Dragon

Our third design illustrates a fantasy favorite: Dragons! This particular dragon species is depicted on the front in a full illustration as well as on each side in silhouettes.

Again, the red outline shows where the front wall is cut out to reveal the painted inside panel of the customer's color choice. This leaves the background of the fully illustrated dragon a solid color, and the dragon's eye depicted on the back of the box to have it's own iris color to match.

Tempus Ex

Our fourth design goes a bit more simple with its illustration, bordered with a light steampunk theme that isn't as intense as our original steampunk design.

Front (design on top) and Back (design on bottom).

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You can always check out our storefront here:

http://LacersEdge.Etsy.Com

Email me: klink098@gmail.com

We love hearing people's questions and comments so please feel free to contact us either through email, this blog, or through our etsy page.

Cthulhu!

Yep, our latest design is now live and available, and this time's it's Cthulhu! Or rather a little chibi version of the awe inspiring and fearful god Cthulhu.

This box is a trading card game deck box, designed to fit 60 sleeved Magic the Gathering cards or 90 unsleeved MTG cards.  Each purchase allows you to customize the lid with text of your choosing!

This box is available for sale here!

da Vinci is now Live!

Well, the box we designed with his sketches and hand writing is now live and for sale, at least.

That's right! It's finally here!

You can check it out here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/224024498/da-vinci-drawing-sketches-keepsake-dic

It's also possible to customize the box in various ways.

Aside from that, we're still working on perfectly our other designs, and getting them ready to go live as well.

Deck Boxes

I'm a big fan of card games, especially Magic the Gathering... into which I have sunk hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours. In my youth I even played with Pokemon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Digimon.

I still play Magic the Gathering, and have always wanted fancy deck boxes. Well I'm about to make my own dream come true! I'm designing a set of MTG themed boxes, as well as misc themes for deck-sized boxes.

One style in particular features the various manas from MTG. The front of the box has a panel behind the top layer of wood, painted with the color of mana, with a circle on the top layer engraved with the mana symbol.

 A preview of our WIP, picturing the black engraving on the wood, and the panel behind that painted in white.

I plan on making a deck box version of our previous designs (Hobbit, da Vinci, and Steampunk) incorporated into this box type. Because I'd LOVE to have a da Vinci style deck box for my blue/artifact proliferate deck.... it somehow seems fitting.

I may have a version which instead of painted wood, has colored acrylic.


Have questions comments? Feel free to let us know! You can get in contact with us directly at LacersEdge@stargladecrafts.com.

Wood Choices

 We use Cherry Wood for most of our products, but why? That reason is really simple! Of all the woods we've tested, cherry wood is the best all around.

First off, it's gorgeous. The wood has a natural red tint to it, with a subtle golden luster. Both the red and golden luster intensify when a clear lacquer is applied, while the red and gold will remain subtle and pale with just a polyurethane applied. We get the best of both options, depending on the application! We like using a polyurethane for jewelry, as to not darken it severely keeping it a neutral for all outfits. We use lacquer for decorative pieces like our boxes to make them really pop in their surroundings and give them a refined appearance.

It's burn color. This wood's burn color is a dark red/brown to brown, which contrasts perfectly with the luster and color of the wood. It has a high contrast, compared to other woods, resulting in a clearer engraving. Maple burns well, but the colors are too yellowed in appearance.

Hardness. It's far from the hardest wood out there, but it still takes a lot to break things made with this wood. You pretty much have to be trying to break it, to do so. It's medium hard wood, so it's still easy to work with, when engraving/cutting it, while still holding its durability as a finished product.

Smell. Smell of course plays a factor in what wood we've chosen. Some woods can be offensive to the nose, such as certain pines. Others are very appealing like Cedar. Cherry wood has a very neutral wood smell, that is not offensive nor particular odorous, as to not deter people who don't care for woody smells like cedar.

Grain. The grain in cherry wood does not carry high contrast, as other woods like walnut, cedar, or tigerwood. This allows for designs to be etched into it without the grain messing up with the contrast of the engraved image. This also means that most of our products are nearly identical. There will be some very minor grain striping, as occurs in almost all woods, but it will be minor.


Our current wood choice covered, we do plan on making some of our boxes from cedar! Cedar is one of my favorite woods aside from cherry. I love the smell, the color, and the burn color. The difficulty is finding workable cedar. A lot of cedars are brittle, soft, and lose a lot of moisture after being cut, causing them to bend in a way you didn't intend. This makes them particular difficult to actually work with, though we plan on having certain products available using this wood type.

Behind da Vinci

I've teased in my previous posts about the da Vinci box, but never posted any pictures. So to make up for it, this post will be all about the da Vinci box, some more teasers, and a bit of "Behind the scenes" for this box in particular.

Origin

This box was designed for my partner in crime, James Lacer, for whom the business is named, and my boyfriend. I wanted to make something special for him. He has a da Vinci picture hanging in our back room, which really looks fantastic, and that he likes a lot. Inspired by that, I designed and made him this box. He has the first iteration of this box, made especially for him with a personal message on the inside.

Design

The box's structural design was simple enough--it isn't an elaborate design like the steampunk box or the Hobbit box. But it's small and very sturdy.

I would like to take a moment to say that da Vinci's sketches are actually surprisingly difficult to come by in decent resolution. This made the creation of this box remarkably trying. There were many failed attempts at rendering images usable. This alone made this box's overall design more difficult to achieve than the other two boxes.

That aside, I'm very pleased with the final outcome, which I'll finally share a few teasers of!

Behind the scenes

If you've been wondering or curious about what goes on in designing these boxes, look no further! Here's a few images displaying what it looks like before it gets etched.

Here's an image showing a glimpse of one of our short sides, shown finished in one of the above images.

A quick little teaser of the lid image, and the side that you haven't gotten to see yet! (The text at the top that's cut of says "Leonardo da Vinci")

Each images shows a quick glimpse of the shape that our cutouts takes, making them fit together like puzzle pieces.

Did you know, that a single engraving can take up to 45 minutes? Depending on the speed that the machine is set to, and how much work the laser actually has to do.
Our most complicated box can take up to 4 hours to complete, from etching, cutting, sanding, assembling, and finishing with a varnish.



Like our work? Let us know! We always want to hear from you. Frequent updates on our products and methods are published to this blog, so be sure to follow us.


As always, these products will be available at in our Esty store not long from now!
Want to know when they're available? Be sure to follow this blog and like our Facebook page, both of which will announce them for sale immediately after they're made available.
Finally, you can get in touch with us directly at LacersEdge@stargladecrafts.com
We love hearing from you, and any suggestions you may have!

What are our plans?

If you've read our previous blog post, you know we're currently working on designing intricately made laser engraved boxes. We also have other plans currently in the works beyond that though! I'd like use this post to take a minute and explain what all our plans are for our in-the-works products--which will focus on customization! Everyone will be able to find something that suits them, when absolutely everything may be customized.

This post will broken down in to 2 parts, so feel free to skip to any part you are interested in.

• In-the-works - What we're currently working on.
• Customization - All about the customization for our products that we're going to be offering with our new line of product

In-the-works 

As already stated, we're currently working on producing various box designs:
A sliding top lid structure featuring a Hobbit engraving around the box.
A simple, rectangular flat-lid box with da Vinci's sketches and writing etched into the sides and lid.
An intricate box featuring recessed panels that are engraved, with steampunk designs. A few pictures of this design can be seen in this post.

We plan to have them available for sale by the end of next week! Before they're posted, we'll be updating this blog with more information and especially pictures of the finished products. We'll also be posting in-progress pictures, to give you an insight into how we go about designing our creations.

We're also working on lightboxes. These laser cut boxes are cubes with silhouetted designs cut out from the surface. Behind the wood sides a frosted clear glass is placed against the wood. Within the structure a light is placed, which will hit the frosted glass and diffuse the light, making the light cast evenly through the silhouetted designs of the wood. It is, in essence, an artfully crafted desk/table light.

Our first design for this is crow themed. Silhouettes of crows are displayed cut into the wood. One panel has a crow's feather, while others show various crows in different scenes. One such scene has three crows taking off from a tangle of tree branches.

Another project we're working on is laser engraved wall art, and painted engraved wall art. Laser engraved wood has an interesting interaction with thin layers of paint. It combines the hard, dark lines of laser engraving with the soft, subtle colors of watercolors. It makes for a very unique aesthetic, and reminds me of an old-time photo or sketch.

Customization

Basically:
We plan for everything to be customizable.

What that actually means:
All of our boxes we're designing are made so that the structure is independent from the designs we etched into it. This means that anyone can choose any box structure they like, and say "I really like this box structure, but I really want this other boxes etched designs on it."

That being said, it's not as simple as copy-and-pasting one boxes images onto another. A lot of consideration goes into the arrangement and proportions for a particular box/image combination, to make it look right. Especially if proportions are completely different from one box to another it takes a lot of manipulation to prepare it successfully with another boxes structure that it wasn't originally designed for. That isn't even including boxes who have completely different designs such as extra parts or less parts.

However keep in mind that this isn't being written to deter anyone from getting a customized piece--we're always happy to go the extra mile to satisfy what you want! We just want to give you the full disclosure of our processes and what really goes into our products and their creation.

Beyond that, we will also offer simple alterations--such as adding your name to the product!

Finally, we'll also offer complete customization--which can come in two flavors:
You choose the box type you want, of the ones we have available. You give us the images you want to apply to the box, maybe even replacing certain parts of a box design we already have available (Maybe you want an lightbulb on your steampunk box lid, rather than an air balloon).

The other flavor is, choose a box structure design you want, and then you tell us the type of design you want! Tell us the style, maybe giving us some examples, and we'll design it from scratch for you! Maybe you want a celtic designed box (Which is actually in the works, but I digress)? We'll design it and create it for you.

That's all fine and dandy, but that was only covering boxes. Essentially, the same will apply to other products too, especially our lightboxes. When we have the products listed in our store, we'll have the option available for different variables of customization.






As always, these products will be available at in our Esty store not long from now!
Want to know when they're available? Be sure to follow this blog and like our Facebook page, both of which will announce them for sale immediately after they're made available.
Finally, you can get in touch with us directly at LacersEdge@stargladecrafts.com
We love hearing from you, and any suggestions you may have!