Making Rhinestone Design Templates

[Ron Thompson]

If you want to get into Rhinestone designs and templates, you might want to purchase a macro for Corel Draw X3, X4 or X5. The cost is $50.00 and looks like a very good add on.

Go to http://macromonster.com/index.php?mo...ones&Submit=Go and watch the video.

I just purchased my copy and I'm waiting for the activation key.

This macro looks better than WinPCSign 2010 that I purchased just to get the Rhinestone designer module.

Click on the link, read all the information and don't forget to watch the video at the bottom of the page.

I think it's worth watching.

Ron "The Signguy" in San Jose

[Andrea Weissenseel]

good find, Tom - thank you for sharing it this comes right handy for the cover of my new mobile

[Larry Bratton]

Ron,
What material are you using to laser cut your templates from? I posted in that other forum asking if you had used Sticky Flock. A person that is distributor for that replied that it had a small amount of PVC in it. I bought that macro and my better half here wants to combine it (doing rhinestones) with the new sublimation ability we just got. I am waiting on the activation key.

[Ron Thompson]

Larry,

I've been doing a little research on Rhinestones and templates. I'm told that "Oil Board" can work and also be cut using a laser. I just received some sample oil board from Uline. One more note, It seems that when you cut the holes in the template material, make the a little larger . A 6ss 2mm cut the hole 2.5mm.

And don't forget Uline will send you samples of the oil board material.

Ron in San Jose

[Ron Thompson]

Here's the YouTube video of a template being cut on a laser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSnK8...eature=related

Ron

The Oil Board from Uline is part number S-1868 and costs around $100 for a case. I'll try to find cheaper and smaller quanities.

Ron

[Larry Bratton]

Ron,
I, like you, have some interest in it. It seems that it is pretty popular in the garment circles. I was wondering why you couldn't cut a template out of acrylic? You would still need something to adhere to the stones to transfer them to the garment and hold them in place while the are in the press. Seems that the Sticky Flock stuff would be a good system if it were PVC free. It apparently has a miniscule amount in it, so I don't know if cutting it in small quantities would be a problem or not. Oilboard may be the way to go.

Edit: I wonder what type of adhesive tape that is that they show in the video?
2nd Edit : Here's the answer:
RST-Transtape
The rhinestone tape is applied to the rhinestone stencil/backing board template to allow the rhinestone design to be easily transferred from the template to garment for heat pressing.

The Graphtec Rhinestone Hotfix Transfer Tape is available in 19.7” x 32.8 ft. rolls.
from Bestblanks. I'm sure others also.

[Ron Thompson]

Larry,

Jeff from macromonster just posted an update at the T-Shirt Forum about the rStone Macro. He say:

Re: Rhinestone Design Software
Quote:Originally Posted by signguy.ronWatch the video at the bottom of the page... Thanks for the kind words and interest. One tip: at youtube, one can watch the vid in full screen to see details more easily.

We're rather open for suggestions to make this tool even more powerful for rhinestone designers. I expect we'll have several interesting - and free - updates for this initial release based on the feedback of the commercial users found here.

I intend to add more items such as metal studs, conchos etc for those making Western / rock & roll clothes. Also, more background textures, such as common shades of cotton.
__________________
Jeff Harrison
macromonster.com

Ron Thompson

[Larry Bratton]

Larry,

Jeff from macromonster just posted an update at the T-Shirt Forum about the rStone Macro. He say:

Re: Rhinestone Design Software
Quote:Originally Posted by signguy.ronWatch the video at the bottom of the page... Thanks for the kind words and interest. One tip: at youtube, one can watch the vid in full screen to see details more easily.

We're rather open for suggestions to make this tool even more powerful for rhinestone designers. I expect we'll have several interesting - and free - updates for this initial release based on the feedback of the commercial users found here.

I intend to add more items such as metal studs, conchos etc for those making Western / rock & roll clothes. Also, more background textures, such as common shades of cotton.
__________________
Jeff Harrison
macromonster.com

Ron Thompson

Ron, I got him to change the outlines on the ellipses to hairlines. They were like a half a point so the laser wouldn't cut them nor the plotters either. He's got some new stuff coming it looks like.

[Jeff Belany]

I know nothing about this product. I asume the stones have heat activated adhesive. Where are the best suppliers for these stones? How much inventory (colors, styles) do you think you would need to get started? This looks like something that would sell pretty well. I'm moving my storefront into a prime retail space (for a small town) so I am hoping for much more walk-in traffic. This might be a good profit area. Once you are set up, how much time would the average job take? (name or short saying) Any ideas would be helpful.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Larry Bratton]

Jeff:
I am a newbie to the rhinestone thing. We have added sublimation to our little shop and my wife likes the idea of doing these as another add on. It looks like to me you would probably have to spend $200=250.00 to have a minimum supply of stones, for $500 or so you can have an assortment of 64,000 pieces. Your going to have to have a heat press, because the stones are hot fix. Prices are all over the board for them. The rest of the stuff is probably less than $100.00 for stencil material etc. If you want some education from some experienced people go over to the t-shirt forum and do some searches. Huge amount of info there on the subject. I can't give you a good answer about the time to do a job, that would have a good many variables. The process overall is pretty simple. Make a design with the software,manufacture a template in the laser, put the stones in the template,pick them up with transfer tape, put on the garment (or whatever) and heat press it. Check Youtube also.

[James Leonard]

Hi,

The best information on RhineStone design and heat pressing is at T-Shirt forums (google it). The lowest cost supplies are at ShineART, but they have pretty big minimum orders. Nova Rhinestone Depot (Los Angeles fashion district) has Saturday hours for those close to LA.

The typical template material will be a sandblast mask cut on a vlnyl cutter. For lasers oilboard works but I also saw GCC demonstrating simple card stock at ISS Long Beach.

That macro looks good, but be careful about rhinestone fills. REALLY non-trivial to do. Usually a lot of hand work. WinPCSign 2010 Pro is considered to be very good if you have followed some of the training videos available. There will also be a MUCH larger user community to draw from initially.

-James Leonard

[Larry Bratton]

Update about the Macro. Jeff has addressed some issues that people in the TS Forum had. I could not get my copy to show the simulated stones, he fixed that. When the stencil was created the ellipses had a .5 outline around them..he changed that to hairline. Some people needed to be able to resize the stone for the template to fit their individual needs..he fixed that, now a window pops up where you enter the size you want the ellipse to be. He also fixed it so that it can be minimized. These changes take place by downloading the latest version and installing it over the existing macro. It's pretty dang good for $50 and he has more updates on the way. The WinPCSign is a good program and you can cut from it directly to a plotter, but it also costs $200 bucks. Money is tight in my camp, so if I can accomplish what I want to do and save money that's for me.

[Joseph Tovar]

-Jeff, another place to pick up stones is from Divine Bling locate at www.divinebling.com. Talk to Stephanie. She is very helpful and knowledgable about the different types of stones and accessories. She is also a distributor for Sticky Flock if you decide to go that route for template material. I believe they are working on a non-PVC version of Sticky Flock.

As for the Macro, I also have been playing with it and find it to be a very good alternative compared to the costly versions out there. Once issue that I'm having though is creating the mock-ups using the actual pictures of the stones. I think you're supposed to be able to convert the flat round circles to actual stones so you can show your client, but I can't seem to get this feature to work. Has anyone been ablet to convert the circles to stones?

Thanks!

[Larry Bratton]

Joseph,
Have you downloaded the latest version. It is 1.1.0.62. I had an issue with the rhinestone simulations in the first version. That has since been fixed. He has made some changes and updates. You can in fact switch from the simulation mode to the flat mode in the edit tab. Just click the appropriate icon. A couple of the changes..he fixed it so that the template circles have hairline outlines which is important for cutting. It will now minimize to keep it out of the way while your working on other things in your graphic. It now gives you the option to resize the circles when you activate the stencil function. As you probably know, rhinestones of Koren manufacturing are a little bit different than the Sworosky stones that the template is built on, so this is an important change.
To get the update, just open that PDF you got in the zipped file and click on the download link. When you get it, just unzip it and run setup. It will install right over the activated version you have. Don't delete anything or make it changes. Jeff says he will more than likely be making changes to it every week for a while, so check often.

Edit: Also, it's worthy to note that it has to be in "stone" mode when you create them. Bottom right corner, red icon next to the undo icon.

[Ruben Salcedo]

James,
you knew that ShineArt is a supplier of Nova?

Ruben