Designing Coasters With Lazertran

Lazertran waterslide transfer paper (www.lazertran.com) allows you to make your own decals! This is what this grand idea is for the coasters that Carole and I have. We are going to print out several different trial pictures and then transfer them onto the tiles that have been collecting dust in my shed for several years. Once we have completed the trials we will decide on the right combination of tile/photo/finish/etc. then we will embark on finishing the project. It is so much more tempting to go out and buy all the stuff to complete a whole project and print all the stuff and then find out that it doesn't work. The best way to embark on a new project is to samples, weed out the disasters, and then pick the best results (if there are good ones, if not-back to the drawing board) and go from there. For me, an hour drive from the nearest craft/art store it is tempting to buy up everything in advance it is still best to get just the bare essentials and pick up more later. Or buy what I think I will use and if I don't open up the packages return the extras-but I really hate to do returns.

Lazertran stuff is expensive, so I will make small samples. Small samples are still cheaper than making ugly large non-samples. Keep that in mind when you are doing any new projects. I have boxes of samples that I have made for all kinds of art. Always label what you did when you made your samples, and always keep them. You will be surprised when years later you open a box and you can't remember how or what you did to make that gadget and you decide to recreate it. Then you have to go through the agony of recreating all of the  experiments all over again. That is why a lot of artists keep really good diaries as well as really good samples. Think like a scientist, document everything, then you can recreate anything.